LUXURIANCE TTU? TIMBER. 4f>9 
from the line tliat marks the partition of the waters. This 
latter line, which separates the tributary streams of the 
Lower and. Upper Orinoco, intersects the meridian of 64° 
in latitude 4°. After having separated the sources of the 
Eio Branco and the Carony, it runs north-west, sending off 
the waters of the Padamo, the Jao, and the Yentuari towards 
the south, and the waters of the Arui, the Caura, and the 
Cuchivero towards the north. 
The Orinoco may he ascended without danger from 
Esmeralda as far as the cataracts occupied by the Guaica 
Indians, who prevent all farther progress of the Spaniards. 
This is a voyage of six days and a half. In the first two 
days yon arrive at the mouth of the Eio Padamo, or 
Patamo, having passed, on the north, the little rivers of 
Tamatama, Sodomoni, Guapo, Caurimoni, and Simirimoni ; 
and on the south the Cuca, situate between the rock of 
Guaraco, which is said to throw out flames, and the Cerro 
Canclilla. Throughout this course the Orinoco continues 
to be three or four hundred toises broad. The tributary 
streams are most frequent on the right bank, because on 
that side the river is bounded by the lofty cloud-capped 
mountains of Duida and Maraguaea, while the left bank on 
the contrary is low and contiguous to a plain, the general 
slope of which inclines to the south-west. The northern 
Cordilleras are covered with fine timber. The growth of 
plants is so enormous in this hot and constantly humid 
climate, that the trunks of the Bombax eeiba are sixteen 
feet in diameter. Prom the mouth of the Eio Padamo, 
which is of considerable breadth, the Indians arrive, in a 
day and a half, at the Eio Mavaca. The latter takes its 
rise in the lofty mountains of Unturan, and communicates 
with a lake, on the banks of which the Portuguese* of the 
Eio Negro gather the aromatic seeds of the Lauras pucheri, 
known in trade by the names of the pichurim lean, and 
* The pichurim bean is the puchiri of La Condamine, which abounds 
at the Rio Xingu, a tributary stream of the Amazon, and on the banks of 
the Hyurubaxy, or Yurubesh, which runs into the Rio Negro. The 
puchery, or pichurim, which is grated like nutmeg, differs from another 
aromatic fruit (a laurel ?) known in trade at Grand Para by the names of 
cucheri, cuchiri, or cravo (clavus) do Maranhao, and which, on account 
of its odour, is compared with cloves. 
