£94 
MAJESTIC RIVER SC32KERT. 
self in vain ; and regretted that I was not provided with a 
mercurial horizon. On the 7th of June, good absolute alti- 
tudes of the sun gave me 69° 40' for the longitude. "W e 
had advanced from Esmeralda 1° 17' toward the west, and 
this chronometric determination merits entire confidence on 
on account of the double observations, made in going and 
returning, at the Great Cataracts, and at the confluence of 
the Atabapo and of the Apure. 
The situation of the mission of Uruana is extremely pic- 
turesque. The little Indian village stands at the foot of a 
lofty granitic mountain. Kocks everywhere appear in the 
form of pillars above the forest, rising higher than the tops 
of the tallest trees. The aspect of the Orinoco is nowhere 
more majestic, than when viewed from the hut of the mis- 
sionary, Fray Bamon Bueno. It is more than two thousand 
six hundred toises broad, and it runs without any winding, 
like a vast canal, straight toward the east. Two long and 
narrow islands (Ida An Uruana and Isla vieja, de la Manteca) 
contribute to give extent to the bed of the river ; the two 
banks are parallel, and we cannot call it divided into differ- 
ent branches. The mission is inhabited by the Ottomacs, 
a tribe in the rudest state, and presenting one of the most 
extraordinary physiological phenomena. They eat earth ; 
that is, they swallow every day, during several months, very 
considerable quantities, to appease hunger, and this practice 
does not appear to have any injurious effect on their health. 
Though we could stay only one day at Uruana, this short 
space of time sufficed to make us acquainted with the pre- 
paration of the poj/a, or balls of earth. I also found some 
traces of this vitiated appetite among the Guamos; and be- 
tween the confluence of the Meta and the Apure, where 
everybody speaks of dirt-eating as of a thing anciently 
known. I shall here confine myself to an account of what 
we ourselves saw or heard from the missionary, who had 
been doomed to live for twelve years among the savage and 
turbulent tribe of the Ottomacs. 
The inhabitants of Uruana belong to those nations of the 
savannahs called wandering Indians (Indios andantes), who, 
more difficult to civilize than the nations of the forest 
(Indios del monte), have a decided aversion to cultivate the 
land, and live almost exelusivelv by hunting and fishing. 
