The First Ascent of Roraima. 
arrival, indeed, themselves pretended to know the way and 
agreed to take us. In the event, as far as their carrying 
powers were concerned, and in their willingness and good 
temper — the latter no unimportant considerations under 
such circumstances as ours — this party of Arekoonas 
proved themselves right good men and true ; but 
they caused us no little trouble in that none 
of them knew the path beyond the Cotinga river more 
than very imperfectly and knew it not at all beyond the 
Arapoo river, and in that their leader, ' Arekoona John ' 
as we called him, under a mask of good temper, concealed 
the most cunning, and almost the most grasping disposi- 
tion that I ever met with even among his tribe. 
It may be as well here very briefly to distinguish the 
various Indian tribes with which we come in contact. 
The Potaro river is almost exclusively occupied by 
Ackawois Indians of the Partamona branch ; and these 
same Partamonas have spread through the forest which 
reaches from that river toward the Ireng, and have even 
emerged from this forest and occupied, as at the village 
which I have mentioned, of Euworraeng, the edge of the 
savannah which extends from the limits of the forest to the 
Ireng. It was, therefore, through their country that we 
first passed. Next, when we were well on to this savan- 
nah, we came to the land of the Macoosis, just at its 
most northern point. Upward from that, we passed at 
once into the land of the Arecoonas, which stretches from 
there to, and beyond Roraima. All the three tribes, the 
Partamonas, Macoosis and Arekoonas, through whose 
districts we thus passed, are of Carib race and speak but 
slightly divergent languages. The three tribes differ 
from e*ach other, however, considerably in appearance 
B 
