462 
LOCALITY OF THE AMAZON STONES 
which is known to all the inhabitants of Esmeralda,* seems 
to indicate that the Orinoco must be very narrow at this 
point. It is generally estimated by the Indians to he only 
two or three hundred feet broad. They say, that the 
Orinoco, above the Randal of the Guaharibos, is no longer a 
river, but a brook (riachuelo) ; while a well informed eccle- 
siastic, Fray >1 uan Gonzales, who had visited those countries, 
assured me, that the Orinoco, in the part where its farther 
course is no no longer known, is two-thirds of the breadth 
of the Rio Nem'o near San Carlos. This opinion appears to 
me hardly probable ; but I relate what I have collected, and 
affirm nothing positively. 
In the rocky dike that crosses the Orinoco, for min g the 
Raudal of the Guaharibos, Spanish soldiers pretend to have 
found the fine kind of saussurite (Amazon-stone), of which 
we have spoken. This tradition however is very uncertain ; 
and the Indians, whom I interrogated on the subject, as- 
snred me, that the green stones, called piedras de Maoagua^ 
at Esmeralda, were purchased from the Guaicas and Guaha- 
ribos, who traffic with hordes much farther to the east. 
The same uncertainty prevails respecting these stones, as 
that which attaches to many other valuable productions of 
the Indies. On the coast, at the distance of some hundred 
leagues, the country where they are found is positively 
named; but when the traveller 'with difficulty penetrates 
into that country, he discovers that the natives are ignorant 
even of the name of the object of his research. It might be 
supposed that the amulets of saussurite found in the posses- 
sion of the Indians of the Rio Negro, come from the Lower 
Maranon, while those that are received by the missions of 
the Upper Orinoco and the Rio Carony come from a 
country situated between the sources of the Essequibo and 
the Rio Branco. The opinion that this stone is taken in 
* The Amazon also is crossed twice on bridges of wood near its source 
in the lake Lauricocha ; first north of Chavin, and then below the con- 
fluence of the Rio Aguamiras. These, the only two bridges that hare 
been thrown over the largest river we yet know, are called Puente de 
Quivilla, and Puente de Guaneaybamba. 
f The etymology of this name, which is unknown to me, might lead to 
the knowledge of the spot where these stones arc found. I have sought 
in vain the name of Macagua among the numerous tributary streams oi 
the Tacutu , the Mabu. the Rupunury, and the Rio Trombetas. 
