22 
ESMERALDA ON THE ORINOCO. 
built by Indians. Before one of them, which we supposed to have been the church or convent, we observed a small bell hung up in the 
gallery, bearing the inscription — “ San Francisco Deasis Capp. 1769.” 
Whatever change time might have produced in the works of man, nature had remained tlie same. Duida still raises its lofty 
summit to the clouds, and flat savannahs “ decorated with clumps of the Mauritia Palm,” stretch from the banks of the Orinoco to the 
foot of the mountains beyond, giving to the landscape that grand and animated appearance which so much delighted de Humboldt. 
A ridge of heaped-up blocks of granite, named Caquire, of the most grotesque forms, and in some places looking like vast edifices 
in ruins, occupies the foreground, and at its foot Esmeralda is situated. Some pious hand has planted a cross on the largest of these 
granitic blocks, the airy form of which stands boldly in relief, with the blue sky as a background, and heightens the picturesque appearance 
of the surrounding scenery. It also reminds us, that although nature and man appear in a savage state, there are still some in this 
wilderness who adore the Deity, and acknowledge a crucified Saviour. 
The village is about seven miles distant from the foot of Duida, which mountain rises to a height of seven thousand one hundred 
and forty-seven feet above Esmeralda, or probably eight thousand two hundred and seventy-eight feet above the sea *. The Indians 
of the rivers Paramu, Cunucuma, or the Maiongkongs, or Maquiritares, in general call the Duida, Yeonamari; and Esmeralda, Mirara. 
Towards the west north-west the mountains rise gradually to the height of about two thousand feet, clothed at first with dense forests, 
succeeded by rocky cliffs, only here and there thinly covered with vegetation. The range extends in sinuous outlines towards the loftiest 
peak, which bears north 30° west from the village. Its base is covered with wood, from which a misshapen rocky mass rises boldly 
to a height of four thousand six hundred and sixty feet, and so precipitous, that it is impossible to climb its summit. A similar rocky 
mass of considerable height stands west of Duida ; 1 could not however ascertain its actual elevation above the savannah, in consequence 
of dark clouds, which, during the period of our stay, hovered constantly round its summit, while to the west the ridge was perfectly clear. 
The base of the mountain chain is of granite, but where the dense wood ceases, and the rocky mass rises for four or five thousand feet 
almost perpendicularly, it is of quartzose sandstone, more or less compact in its nature. Numerous veins of quartz traverse this sandstone 
in various directions, and are analogous to those of the crystal mountains near Roraima. Spots of dazzling whiteness are observable along 
the precipitous declivities of Duida, when the atmosphere is clear, and the sun reflects his rays on its walls, which consist no doubt of quartz ; 
and the numerous fragments which we found on the savannah below, and in the beds of the streams which flow from it, prove the 
abundance of this mineral throughout the range. 
A charming prospect presents itself from the cross of which I have already spoken. To the north, the high mountains, with 
their steep wall-like forms throwing out buttresses and escarpments which look like the works surrounding a vast fortification, soften into 
blueish tints as they recede in the distance. The course of the Orinoco upwards can be traced for a considerable distance ; and a 
few isolated, rounded hills, of inconsiderable height, rise on either side of its banks ; elsewhere, dense forests cover the plain. Below 
is Esmeralda, looking like a deserted village ; the noon-tide heat and prodigious swarms of sand-flies confining the few inhabitants to 
their houses ; the savannah extends from the village to the river ; a few stunted trees, and some Mauritia Palms rise from the thick 
grass, on which numerous ant-hills, of a pyramidical shape, from three to four feet high, and black like the soil of which they are 
built, form a singular and remarkable object. 
Baron de Humboldt observed, that the inhabitants of Esmeralda “ lived in great poverty, and their miseries were augmented by 
large swarms of mosquitoes,” an observation equally applicable at the present day. , The inhabitants are miserably poor, and as to the 
numbers of sand-flies, or mosquitoes as they are more properly called by the Spaniards, from the first dawn to nightfall, they surpassed 
any thing I had ever seen. Indeed, Esmeralda, on account of the immense number of insects which obscure the air at all seasons of 
the year, was considered by the monks, when the missions still existed along the Orinoco, as a place of banishment and malediction, 
and to be sent to Esmeralda was said “to be condemned to the mosquitoes, to be devoured by those buzzing flies with which God 
has peopled the earth to chastise man f.” In consequence of the bites which they had inflicted upon me during our stay in Esmeralda, 
more than four months elapsed before I was perfectly cured ; and although in romantic scenery and situation Esmeralda may not be 
easily surpassed, I almost feel inclined, with the good fathers, to consider it as a place of proscription and chastisement. 
* See de Humboldt’s Personal Narrative, vol. v, p. 550, and Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. x, p. 245. 
t Fray Pedro Simon, p. 481 ; vide Humboldt’s Pers. Narr., vol. v, p. 508. 
