PURUMAMA, 
THE GREAT FALL OF THE RIVER PARIMA. 
Latitude, 3° 20 ' N. Longitude, 62° 3' W. 
AFTER our visit to Roraima we travelled about one hundred miles, in a south south-west direction, over savannahs and mountains, and 
embarked in canoes on the river Parima, which some Indian tribes call Urariquera, and the Brazilians, from the colour of its water, 
Rio Branco, or white river, in contra-distinction to the Rio Negro, which has black waters. 
From the information which I had collected from some Maiongkong Indians, one of whom was particularly acquainted with the 
regions of the Orinoco, I thought it advisable to follow the Parima, in order to reach Esmeralda on the upper Orinoco. We embarked 
on the 6th of December, and found the river much obstructed by falls and rapids, and our progress was consequently very slow. In 
the morning of the 10th of December we reached the mouth of the Uraricapara* which joins the Parima from the north-west. 
Towards the end of the last century, namely in 1775, the Spaniards, who claimed the sovereignty over those regions, erected 
a small fort on the right bank of the Uraricapara, called Santa Rosa, which however was not many years after abandoned, and its site was 
already overgrown with bushes when the Portuguese surveyors visited it in the commencement of this century. A chain of hillocks, 
which crosses the Uraricapara, likewise traverses the Urariquera or Parima, and not far from the junction of both rivers forms the 
formidable cataracts. 
The Purumama Immm is without doubt one of the largest falls in Guiana, and vies in size and magnificence with the cataract of 
William IV, on the Essequibo, and the falls of the Corentyn. This powerful obstacle to navigation seems to arise from the river 
having forced its way through the hilly range to which I have already alluded. Diminishing to about fifty yards, it divides into two 
streams, and precipitates itself from a height of forty, or forty-five feet to the basin below. The grand and awful appearance of this 
large body of water is sublime beyond description, and in consequence of stony dykes, has for miles previous to its reaching the large 
fall, formed an uninterrupted succession of rapids and whirlpools, and ultimately dashes down a precipice of forty-five feet between 
two immense pillars of black shining rocks, which rise at the brink of the precipice from the foaming waters. The outflow from 
the basin here owes its existence to the narrowing of the main channel of the river on either side, in consequence of two or more 
abutments of rocks, and was not more than thirty feet wide when we saw it. . Through this contracted channel, the whole mass of 
the waters of the Parima, just after having rushed over a precipice, is forced to make its way. On meeting with this new obstacle 
an indraught is caused and rushes back in an eddy, and forms in the middle of the basin a vortex or whirlpool, which perhap*' more 
powerfully realizes the picture of the Charybdis as painted by the ancients, than we find that whirlpool does in reality. In order 
to witness its power we sent some Indians above the fall, and ordered them to cut down one of the largest trees which lined the 
bank. How great was our admiration when, after having been directed into the midchannel, it approached the chasm, and with its 
numerous branches was hurled down the precipice ! Scarcely had it approached the whirling gulf, when it was sucked under, and 
when it reappeared it was already in the middle of the outflowing stream, a naked trunk, its countless branches broken, and rushing 
down the impetuous channel. 
The grandeur of the tropical scenery, the numerous Palms and Uranias with their gigantic leaves, which skirt the Cataract, and 
add sublimity to the mountains around, enhance the picturesque view of the Purumama Imeru. 
We distinctly heard the roar of the great cataract before we reached the junction of the Uraricapara with the Parima, and at 
least at a distance of a mile and a half from the fall. A little beyond, a second fall occurs of about twenty-five feet, making altogether 
a descent of from seventy to seventy-five feet, and to overcome this formidable impediment to our navigation of the river, we had no 
alternative but to carry our corials over the range of hills, which rise about three hundred and fifty feet above the river. Though 
the ascent was for about a third of the way at an angle of sixty degrees, and the Indians had to support themselves by steps and ropes 
of lianas, which had been made by our predecessors, we nevertheless completed the portage by four o’clock in the afternoon, and 
embarking above the cataracts, once more proceeded about half a mile further to a convenient resting place. 
* Uraricapara and Urariquera are compound terms of Urari, the plant of which the Indians make their arrow poison, and which I discovered to be a species of 
Strychnos. Capara signifies “river, stream;” but the signification of quera, or as it is pronounced by the Paravilhanas Coira, I am not able to give. 
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