saw lusnuANDO de atabapo. 
479 
cultivated region of Venezuela, were naturally the first to 
receive missionaries, and with them some germs of social 
life. Corresponding to the Carony and the Caura, which 
flow toward the north, are two great tributary streams 
of the Upper Orinoco, that send their waters toward the 
south ; these are the Padamo and the Yentuari. No village 
has hitherto risen on their banks, though they offer advan- 
tages for agriculture and pasturage, which would be sought 
in vain in the valley of the immense river to which they are 
tributary. In the centre of these wild countries, where 
there will long be no other road than the rivers, every pro- 
ject of civilization should be founded on an intimate know- 
ledge of the hydraulic features of the country, and the 
relative importance of the tributary streams. 
In the morning of the 26th of May we left the little 
village of Santa Barbara, where we found several Indians of 
Esmeralda, who had come reluctantly, by order of the 
missionary, to construct for him a house of two stories. 
During the whole day we enjoyed the view of the fine 
mountains of Sipapo, which rise at a distance of more than 
eighteen leagues in the direction of north-north-west. The 
vegetation ot the banks of the Orinoco is singularly varied 
in this part of the country ; the aborescent ferns* descend 
from the mountains, and mingle with the palm-trees of the 
plain. We rested that night on the island of Minisi; and, 
after having passed the mouths of the little rivers Queja- 
numa, Ubua, and Masao, we arrived, on the 27th of May, at 
San Fernando de Atabapo. We lodged in the same house 
which we had occupied a month previously, when going up 
the Eio Negro. We then directed our course towards 
the south, by the Atabapo and the Temi; we were now 
returning from the west, having made a long circuit by the 
Cassiquiare and the Upper Orinoco. 
We remained only one day at San Fernando de Atabapo, 
although that village, adorned as it was by the pirijao palm- 
tree, with fruit like peaches, appeared to us a delicious 
* The geographical distribution of these plants is extremely singular. 
Scarcely any are found on the eastern coast of Brazil. (See the interest- 
ing work of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, “ Rei.;e nach Brasilien,” vol. 
I p. 274.) 
