THE GREAT CATARACTS OF THE RIVER COREWTYN. 
Latitude, 4'= 21' N. Longitude, 57° 25' W. 
WOTETO-TOBO, OR SIR JOHN BARROW’S CATARACT. 
THE river Corentyn is not only interesting because it forms the boundary between the British and Dutch possessions in Guiana, but 
on account of its magnitude and length, it being one of the most considerable rivers between the Amazon and Orinoco ; and from 
the information which I acquired while at the Upper Essequibo, I suppose it to be equal in length to that stream. In 1837 we selected 
it as the high road to the central mountain-chain, which has been called by the missionaries Acarai and Tumucuraque, and the upper 
part of which, according to the tradition of the Caribs, is said to be inhabited by the Amazons. The treachery of those very Caribs, 
who by their extravagant accounts had raised our curiosity, prevented our ascent beyond the great cataracts, and anxious as we were 
to ascertain the existence or non-existence of a republic of females, the accounts of which since the sixteenth century have excited the 
greatest interest, it was yet impossible to realize our wishes. We are in the present times too well acquainted with the truth not to 
remark in those accounts, which have been transmitted to us by the early historians, a desire to adorn whatever related to the New 
Continent with the most marvellous stories. It is, however, extraordinary, that if the tradition originated with the Europeans, that it has 
not only remained, but is even now adopted by several Indian tribes in Guiana, and the Caribs of the rivers Corentyn, Essequibo, 
and Rupununi ; they in the gravest manner declare, that these separate hordes of females, or Worisamacos, still exist at the upper part 
of the Corentyn, in a country called Marawonne. The locality where they are said to live was so well described to me, that the 
Carib, from whom I had the information, assured me, that when we should have passed high above the cataracts, to that part where 
two huge rocks called Poiomoco and Surama rise from each bank of the river, and bound it like a portal, then we might consider 
ourselves in the republic of women. 
It was not decreed that we should get beyond a certain point. After we had passed a turn which the river makes in latitude 4° 22' N. 
we observed several hills on both sides : half an hour’s further progress, and we found ourselves in apparently a large basin, surrounded 
by hills from sixty to one hundred feet high. The river was now broken up into torrents, the white flakes of foam, which came floating 
down as if to give us welcome, the thundering noise of the falling waters, and a cloud of mist which hung over the southern hills, all 
told in an intelligible voice that some great scene of nature was before us. This basin was the furthest extent of our ascent up the 
river Corentyn in boats ; for the Caribs, who formed our crew, refused to go further, and we were ultimately obliged to return without 
having paid a visit to the Worisamaco *. 
I followed a party of Indians who appeared acquainted with this place, and after some labour and wading, reached a branch of the 
river which divided itself into two channels. The western branch formed a fall, and the opening prospect on I’eaching its head was 
* Two years afterwards 1 learned that the Caribs who accompanied us in that expedition, believed firmly in the existence of these women, and having* persuaded 
themselves we intended to go thither, they became afraid of being* detained for more than nine months among them, which determined them neither to show us the portage 
by which we could have avoided the cataracts, nor accompany us any further. We ascribed this unwillingness to other reasons. 
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