THE BLACK RIVERS.

207

Mataveni, the Atabapo, the Tuamini, the Temi, and the Guainia, are called aguas negras, literally 66 black waters;" their waters, when seen in a large body, appearing brown, like coffee, or of a greenish black. Nevertheless, these waters are beautifully clear, and very agreeable to the taste, and when the least breath of wind agitates the surface of the black rivers, they assume a fine grass-green hue, like that of the lakes of Switzerland. These phenomena are so striking, that the Indians everywhere distinguish the waters into black and white. "The former," says Humboldt, "have often served me for an artificial horizon; they reflect the images of the stars with admirable clearness." He is unable to account for the colour, but suggests that it arises from 66 a mixture of carbon and hydrogen, in an extractive vegetable matter.”

66

Passing the mouths of several rivers, our travellers at length came to the Guaviare, and entering that branch of the Orinoco, forsook the main stream, for a purpose which we shall presently explain. It was on the 24th that they entered the mouth of the Guaviare; they passed, soon afterwards, the point where the Rio Atabapo joins that river, and reaching the mission of San Fernando de Atabapo soon after midnight, were lodged as usual at the missionary's house, the convent," as it is called.

66

The night of the 23rd was spent near a rock called Aricagua, from the clefts of which an innumerable quantity of bats issued, and hovered around their hammocks. The number of these animals, which are very injurious to cattle, is particularly augmented in years of drought. In the province of Ciara, in Brazil, they cause such destruction among the cows, that rich farmers are sometimes reduced by them to indigence. These are called vampyre-bats.

208

DEPARTURE FROM ORINOCO.

CHAPTER XVII.

Departure from the Orinoco, and ascent of the river Atabapo-Mission of San Balthasar-Rock of the Mother; origin of its name-Connexion of the Orinoco with the river Amazon-Dapicho-They embark on the Pimichin stream.

"DURING the night," says Humboldt, we had left, almost unperceived, the waters of the Orinoco, and at sunrise found ourselves as if transported to a new country, on the banks of a river the name of which we had scarcely ever heard pronounced, and which was to conduct us, by the portage of Pimichin, to the Rio Negro, on the frontiers of Brazil. 'You will ascend,' said the president of the missions, who resides at San Fernando, 'first the Atabapo, then the Temi, and finally the Tuamini. When the force of the current of the black waters hinders you from advancing, you will be conducted out of the bed of the river through forests which you will find inundated. Two monks only are settled in those desert places between the Orinoco and the Rio Negro; but at Javita you will be furnished with the means of having your canoe drawn overland, in the course of four days, to Canno Pimichin. If it be not broken to pieces, you will descend the Rio Negro, (from north-west to south-east,) as far as the little fort of San Carlos, without encountering any obstacle; you will ascend the Cassiquiare (from south to north), and then return to San Fernando in a month, descending the Upper Orinoco from east to west.' Such was the plan which was traced for our navigation, and which we executed not without suffering, but without danger and with facility, in the space of thirty-three days."

Our travellers began their ascent of the Atabapo from

THE RIVER ATABAFO.

209

San Fernando on the 26th. A remarkable change takes place on entering this river; the constitution of the atmosphere, the colour of the waters, and the form of the trees which cover the shore, all become different. The moschetoes no longer torture the traveller during the day, and the long-legged zancudoes become rare during the night, and even altogether disappear beyond San Fernando. The waters of the Orinoco are turbid, and loaded with earthy matter, and in the creeks, from the accumulation of dead crocodiles and other putres cent substances, diffuse an unpleasant smell. Our tras vellers were sometimes obliged to strain the water through a linen cloth before they could drink of it. On the other hand, the waters of the Atabapo are pure, des titute of smell, and agreeable to the taste; their colour is brownish by reflected light, and a pale yellow by transmitted light. The people call them “light,” in contra distinction to the heavy and turbid waters of the Orinoco; and they are cooler, likewise, than the latter. Humboldt observes that, after having been compelled, during a whole year, to drink water at 80° or 82°, a lowering of a few degrees in the temperature produces a very agreeable sensation.

The extreme purity of the waters of the Atabapo, in common with the other black rivers, is shown by their limpidity, their transparency, and the clearness with which they reflect the images and colours of surrounds ing objects. The smallest fish are visible at the depth of twenty or thirty feet, and the bottom of the river may generally be perceived, exhibiting not a yellowish or brownish mud, but a sand of dazzling whiteness. Nothing," says Humboldt, "can be compared to the beauty of the banks of the Atabapo. Loaded with plants, among which rise the palms, crowned with leafy

P