BOHN'S SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY HUMBOLDT'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE VOLUME PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF AMERICA DURING THE YEARS 1799-1804 BY ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND AIME BONPLAND TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND EDITED BY THOMASINA ROSS IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1908 LONDON: PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO BOMBAY: A.H WHEELER AND CO *** The longitudes mentioned in the text refer always to the meridian of the Observatory of Paris The real is about 1/2 English pence The agrarian measure, called caballeria, is eighteen cordels, (each cordel includes twenty-four varas) or 432 square varas; consequently, as vara = 0.835m., according to Rodriguez, a caballeria is 186,624 square varas, or 130,118 square metres, or thirtytwo and two-tenths English acres 20 leagues to a degree 5000 varas = 4150 metres 3403 square toises = 1.29 hectare An acre = 4044 square metres Five hundred acres = fifteen and a half caballerias Sugar-houses are thought to be very considerable that yield 2000 cases annually, or 32,000 arrobas (nearly 368,000 kilogrammes.) An arroba of 25 Spanish pounds = 11.49 kilogrammes A quintal = 45.97 kilogrammes A tarea of wood = one hundred and sixty cubic feet VOLUME CONTENTS CHAPTER 3.25 SPANISH GUIANA.—ANGOSTURA.—PALM-INHABITING MISSIONS OF THE CAPUCHINS.—THE LAGUNA PARIME.—EL DORADO.—LEGENDARY TALES OF THE EARLY VOYAGERS CHAPTER 3.26 TRIBES.— THE LLANOS DEL PAO, OR EASTERN PART OF THE PLAINS OF VENEZUELA.—MISSIONS OF THE CARIBS.—LAST VISIT TO THE COAST OF NUEVA BARCELONA, CUMANA, AND ARAYA CHAPTER 3.27 POLITICAL STATE OF THE PROVINCES OF VENEZUELA.—EXTENT OF TERRITORY.—POPULATION.—NATURAL PRODUCTIONS.—EXTERNAL TRADE.—COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT PROVINCES COMPRISING THE REPUBLIC OF COLUMBIA CHAPTER 3.28 PASSAGE FROM THE COAST OF VENEZUELA TO THE HAVANA.— GENERAL VIEW OF THE POPULATION OF THE WEST INDIA ISLANDS, COMPARED WITH THE POPULATION OF THE NEW CONTINENT, WITH RESPECT TO DIVERSITY OF RACES, PERSONAL LIBERTY, LANGUAGE, AND WORSHIP CHAPTER 3.29 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA.—THE HAVANNAH.— HILLS OF GUANAVACOA, CONSIDERED IN THEIR GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS.—VALLEY OF LOS GUINES, BATABANO, AND PORT OF TRINIDAD.—THE KING AND QUEEN'S GARDENS CHAPTER 3.30 PASSAGE FROM TRINIDAD DE CUBA TO RIO SINU.—CARTHAGENA.— AIR VOLCANOES OF TURBACO.—CANAL OF MAHATES CHAPTER 3.31 CUBA AND THE SLAVE TRADE CHAPTER 3.32 GEOGNOSTIC DESCRIPTION OF SOUTH AMERICA, NORTH OF THE RIVER AMAZON, AND EAST OF THE MERIDIAN OF THE SIERRA NEVADA DE MERIDA INDEX *** PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF THE NEW CONTINENT VOLUME CHAPTER 3.25 SPANISH GUIANA ANGOSTURA PALM-INHABITING TRIBES MISSIONS OF THE CAPUCHINS THE LAGUNA PARIME EL DORADO LEGENDARY TALES OF THE EARLY VOYAGERS I shall commence this chapter by a description of Spanish Guiana (Provincia de la Guyana), which is a part of the ancient Capitania general of Caracas Since the end of the sixteenth century three towns have successively borne the name of St Thomas of Guiana The first was situated opposite to the island of Faxardo, at the confluence of the Carony and the Orinoco, and was destroyed* by the Dutch, under the command of Captain Adrian Janson, in 1579 (* The first of the voyages undertaken at Raleigh's expense was in 1595; the second, that of Laurence Keymis, in 1596; the third, described by Thomas Masham, in 1597; and the fourth, in 1617 The first and last only were performed by Raleigh in person This celebrated man was beheaded on October the 29th, 1618 It is therefore the second town of Santo Tomas, now called Vieja Guyana, which existed in the time of Raleigh.) The second, founded by Antonio de Berrio in 1591, near twelve leagues east of the mouth of the Carony, made a courageous resistance to Sir Walter Raleigh, whom the Spanish writers of the conquest know only by the name of the pirate Reali The third town, now the capital of the province, is fifty leagues west of the confluence of the Carony It was begun in 1764, under the Governor Don Joacquin Moreno de Mendoza, and is distinguished in the public documents from the second town, vulgarly called the fortress (el castillo, las fortalezas), or Old Guayana (Vieja Guayana), by the name of Santo Thome de la Nueva Guayana This name being very long, that of Angostura* (the strait) has been commonly substituted for it (* Europe has learnt the existence of the town of Angostura by the trade carried on by the Catalonians in the Carony bark, which is the beneficial bark of the Bonplanda trifoliata This bark, coming from Nueva Guiana, was called corteza or cascarilla del Angostura (Cortex Angosturae) Botanists so little guessed the origin of this geographical denomination that they began by writing Augustura, and then Augusta.) Angostura, the longitude and latitude of which I have already indicated from astronomical observations, stands at the foot of a hill of amphibolic schist* bare of vegetation (* Hornblendschiefer.) The streets are regular, and for the most part parallel with the course of the river Several of the houses are built on the bare rock; and here, as at Carichana, and in many other parts of the missions, the action of black and strong strata, when strongly heated by the rays of the sun upon the atmosphere, is considered injurious to health I think the small pools of stagnant water (lagunas y anegadizos), which extend behind the town in the direction of south-east, are more to be feared The houses of Angostura are lofty and convenient; they are for the most part built of stone; which proves that the inhabitants have but little dread of earthquakes But unhappily this security is not founded on induction from any precise data It is true that the shore of Nueva Andalusia sometimes undergoes very violent shocks, without the commotion being propagated across the Llanos The fatal catastrophe of Cumana, on the 4th of February, 1797, was not felt at Angostura; but in the great earthquake of 1766, which destroyed the same city, the granitic soil of the two banks of the Orinoco was agitated as far as the Raudales of Atures and Maypures South of these Raudales shocks are sometimes felt, which are confined to the basin of the Upper Orinoco and the Rio Negro They appear to depend on a volcanic focus distant from that of the Caribbee Islands We were told by the missionaries at Javita and San Fernando de Atabapo that in 1798 violent earthquakes took place between the Guaviare and the Rio Negro, which were not propagated on the north towards Maypures We cannot be sufficiently attentive to whatever relates to the simultaneity of the oscillations, and to the independence of the movements in contiguous ground Everything seems to prove that the propagation of the commotion is not superficial, but depends on very deep crevices that terminate in different centres of action The scenery around the town of Angostura is little varied; but the view of the river, which forms a vast canal, stretching from south-west to north-east, is singularly majestic When the waters are high, the river inundates the quays; and it sometimes happens that, even in the town, imprudent persons become the prey of crocodiles I shall transcribe from my journal a fact that took place during M Bonpland's illness A Guaykeri Indian, from the island of La Margareta, was anchoring his canoe in a cove where there were not three feet of water A very fierce crocodile, which habitually haunted that spot, seized him by the leg, and withdrew from the shore, remaining on the surface of the water The cries of the Indian drew together a crowd of spectators This unfortunate man was first seen seeking, with astonishing presence of mind, for a knife which he had in his pocket Not being able to find it, he seized the head of the crocodile and thrust his fingers into its eyes No man in the hot regions of America is ignorant that this carnivorous reptile, covered with a buckler of hard and dry scales, is extremely sensitive in the only parts of his body which are soft and unprotected, such as the eyes, the hollow underneath the shoulders, the nostrils, and beneath the lower jaw, where there are two glands of musk The Guaykeri Indian was less fortunate than the negro of Mungo Park, and the girl of Uritucu, whom I mentioned in a former part of this work, for the crocodile did not open its jaws and lose hold of its prey The animal, overcome by pain, plunged to the bottom of the river, and, after having drowned the Indian, came up to the surface of the water, dragging the dead body to an island opposite the port A great number of the inhabitants of Angostura witnessed this melancholy spectacle The crocodile, owing to the structure of its larynx, of the hyoidal bone, and of the folds of its tongue, can seize, though not swallow, its prey under water; thus when a man disappears, the animal is usually perceived some hours after devouring its prey on a neighbouring beach The number of individuals who perish annually, the victims of their own imprudence and of the ferocity of these reptiles, is much greater than is believed in Europe It is particularly so in villages where the neighbouring grounds are often inundated The same crocodiles remain long in the same places They become from year to year more daring, especially, as the Indians assert, if they have once tasted of human flesh These animals are so wary, that they are killed with difficulty A ball does not pierce their skin; and the shot is only mortal when it penetrates the throat or a part beneath the shoulder The Indians, who know little of the use of firearms, attack the crocodile with lances, after the animal has been caught with large pointed iron hooks, baited with pieces of meat, and fastened by a chain to the trunk of a tree They not approach the animal till it has struggled a long time to disengage itself from the iron fixed in the upper jaw There is little probability that a country in which a labyrinth of rivers without number brings every day new bands of crocodiles from the eastern back of the Andes, by the Meta and the Apure, toward the coast of Spanish Guiana, should ever be delivered from these reptiles All that will be gained by civilization will be to render them more timid and more easily put to flight Affecting instances are related of African slaves, who have exposed their lives to save those of their masters, who had fallen into the jaws of a crocodile A few years ago, between Uritucu and the Mission de Abaxo, a negro, hearing the cries of his master, flew to the spot, armed with a long knife (machete), and plunged into the river He forced the crocodile, by putting out his eyes, to let go his prey and to plunge under the water The slave bore his expiring master to the shore; but all succour was unavailing to restore him to life He had died of suffocation, for his wounds were not deep The crocodile, like the dog, appears not to close its jaws firmly while swimming The inhabitants of the banks of the Orinoco and its tributary streams discourse continually on the dangers to which they are exposed They have marked the manners of the crocodile, as the torero has studied the manners of the bull When they are assailed, they put in practice, with that presence of mind and that resignation which characterize the Indians, the Zamboes, and copper-coloured men in general, the counsels they have heard from their infancy In countries where nature is so powerful and so terrible, man is constantly prepared for danger We have mentioned before the answer of the young Indian girl, who delivered herself from the jaws of the crocodile: "I knew he would let me go if I thrust my fingers into his eyes." This girl belonged to the indigent class of the people, in whom the habits of physical want augment energy of character; but how can we avoid being surprised to observe in the countries convulsed by terrible earthquakes, on the table-land of the province of Quito, women belonging to the highest classes of society display in the moment of peril, the same calm, the same reflecting intrepidity? I shall mention one example only in support of this assertion On the 4th of February, 1797, when 35,000 Indians perished in the space of a few minutes, a young mother saved herself and her children, crying out to them to extend their arms at the moment when the cracked ground was ready to swallow them up When this courageous woman heard the astonishment that was expressed at a presence of mind so extraordinary, she answered, with great simplicity, "I had been told in my infancy: if the earthquake surprise you in a house, place yourself under a doorway that communicates from one apartment to another; if you be in the open air and feel the ground opening beneath you, extend both your arms, and try to support yourself on the edge of the crevice." Thus, in savage regions or in countries exposed to frequent convulsions, man is prepared to struggle with the beasts of the forest, to deliver himself from the jaws of the crocodile, and to escape from the conflict of the elements The town of Angostura, in the early years of its foundation, had no direct communication with the mother-country The inhabitants were contented with carrying on a trifling contraband trade in dried meat and tobacco with the West India Islands, and with the Dutch colony of Essequibo, by the Rio Carony Neither wine, oil, nor flour, three articles of importation the most sought after, was received directly from Spain Some merchants, in 1771, sent the first schooner to Cadiz; and since that period a direct exchange of commodities with the ports of Andalusia and Catalonia has become extremely active The population of Angostura,* after having been a long time languishing, has much increased since 1785 (* Angostura, or Santo Thome de la Nueva Guayana, in 1768, had only 500 inhabitants Caulin page 63 They were numbered in 1780 and the result was 1513 (455 Whites, 449 Blacks, 363 Mulattoes and Zamboes, and 246 Indians) The population in the year 1789 rose to 4590; and in 1800 to 6600 souls Official Lists manuscript The capital of the English colony of Demerara, the town of Stabroek, the name of which is scarcely known in Europe, is only fifty leagues distant, south-east of the mouths of the Orinoco It contains, according to Bolingbroke, nearly 10,000 inhabitants.) At the time of my abode in Guiana, however, it was far from being equal to that of Stabroek, the nearest English town The mouths of the Orinoco have an advantage over every other part in Terra Firma They afford the most prompt communications with the Peninsula The voyage from Cadiz to Punta Barima is performed sometimes in eighteen or twenty days The return to Europe takes from thirty to thirty-five days These mouths being placed to windward of all the islands, the vessels of Angostura can maintain a more advantageous commerce with the West Indies than La Guayra and Porto Cabello The merchants of Caracas, therefore, have been always jealous of the progress of industry in Spanish Guiana; and Caracas having been hitherto the seat of the supreme government, the port of Angostura has been treated with still less favour than the ports of Cumana and Nueva Barcelona With respect to the inland trade, the most active is that of the province of Varinas, which sends mules, cacao, indigo, cotton, and sugar to Angostura; and in return receives generos, that is, the products of the manufacturing industry of Europe I have seen long boats (lanchas) set off, the cargoes of which were valued at eight or ten thousand piastres These boats went first up the Orinoco to Cabruta; then along the Apure to San Vicente; and finally, on the Rio Santo Domingo, as far as Torunos, which is the port of Varinas Nuevas The little town of San Fernando de Apure, of which I have already given a description, is the magazine of this river-trade, which might become more considerable by the introduction of steamboats I have now described the country through which we passed during a voyage of five hundred leagues; it remains for me to make known the small space of three degrees fifty-two minutes of longitude, that separates the present capital from the mouth of the Orinoco Exact knowledge of the delta and the course of the Rio Carony is at once interesting to hydrography and to European commerce When a vessel coming from sea would enter the principal mouth of the Orinoco, the Boca de Navios, it should make the land at the Punta Barima The right or southern bank is the highest: the granitic rock pierces the marshy soil at a small distance in the interior, between the Cano Barima, the Aquire, and the Cuyuni The left, or northern bank of the Orinoco, which stretches along the delta towards the Boca de Mariusas and the Punta Baxa, is very low, and is distinguishable at a distance only by the clumps of moriche palm-trees which embellish the passage This is the sago-tree* of the country (* The nutritious fecula or medullary flour of the sago-trees is found principally in a group of palms which M Kunth has distinguished by the name of calameae It is collected, however, in the Indian Archipelago, as an article of trade, from the trunks of the Cycas revoluta, the Phoenix farinifera, the Corypha umbraculifera, and the Caryota urens (Ainslie, Materia Medica of Hindostan, Madras 1813.)) The quantity of nutritious matter which the real sago-tree of Asia affords (Sagus Rumphii, or Metroxylon sagu, Roxb.) exceeds that which is furnished by any other plant useful to man One trunk of a tree in its fifteenth year sometimes yields six hundred pounds weight of sago, or meal (for the word sago signifies meal in the dialect of Amboyna) Mr Crawfurd, who resided a long time in the Indian Archipelago, calculates that an English acre could contain four hundred and thirty-five sago-trees, which would yield one hundred and twenty thousand five hundred pounds avoirdupois of fecula, or more than eight thousand pounds yearly History of the Indian Archipelago volume pages 387 and 393 This produce is triple that of corn, and double that of potatoes in France But the plantain produces, on the same surface of land, still more alimentary substance than the sago-tree.); it yields the flour of which the yuruma bread is made; and far from being a palm-tree of the shore, like the Chamaerops humilis, the common cocoa-tree, and the lodoicea of Commerson, is found as a palm-tree of the marshes as far as the sources of the Orinoco.* (* I dwell much on these divisions of the great and fine families of palms according to the distribution of the species: first, in dry places, or inland plains, Corypha tectorum; second, on the sea-coast, Chamaerops humilis, Cocos nucifera, Corypha maritima, Teneriffe: peak of camels of island of temperature of botanical gardens of geognosy of fruits and plants of aborigines of feudal government of Termites, ravages of the Terra Firma: old and new routes to situation of, in relation to the island of Cuba insalubrity of seven provinces of seasons in coast defences of Tetas: de Managua de Tolu Teyde, peak of Theatre of Caracas Theocritus, translations from Theories: of earthquakes of electricity of migration Thermometer, use of, in navigation Thonschiefer, see Clay-slate Thunder, subterranean Tibitibies Tide-borne fruits Tierra del Fuego: straits of islands of Tiger, ravine Tigers, see Jaguar black Timber: luxuriance of abundance of Titis Tivitivas, see Tibitibies Tobacco: origin of the word cultivation of, in Cumana and Mexico plantations of, in Valencia in Guiania in Cumanacoa in the island of Cuba statistics of Tobago: situation of Tocuyo river Tomatoes, cultivation of Tombs, Indian Tomo river Torito Torpedo, experiments on the Torrid zone, see Zone Toucan, natural history of the Tovar, Count, generous treatment of slaves by Tower of Hercules: lighthouse of the Trade winds: latitudes of the Traditions: Egyptian Tree-frogs Tree-inhabiting Indians Trees: antiquity of alimentary properties of the following American trees are referred to under their respective alphabetical entries: the Aloe, Aguatire, Almond, Balsam, Barba de Tigre, Bombax, Bonplandia trifoliata, Brazil Nut, Cuspa, Cortex Angosturae, Cecropia, Cotton-tree, Canela or Cinnamon, Curacay, Courbaril, Cacao, Coffee, Cowtree, Carolinea princeps, Dragon's-blood, Erythrina, Fig-tree, Guarumo or Jarumo, Hay-tree, Mammea, Mauritia, Mangrove, Palms, Palo de Vaca, Parkinsonia aculeata, Shirt-tree, Volador, and Zamang-tree Tribes: various, of native Indians migrations of intelligence of proportion of the different castes aboriginal hyperborean Trincheras, Las, hot springs of Trinidad: town of commerce of Humboldt's departure from Tropics: atmosphere of the noon in the Tropical: climate, dangers of, to Europeans, from variable temperature fever fatal effects of vegetation Turmero: Indians of militia of Tuamini, isthmus of Tunales, or cactus groves Turimiquiri: mountain of ascent of the lofty peaks of Turmero Turner, Mr., on Sea Vegetation Turtle fisheries Turtles: different species of instinct of eggs of the fisheries for capture of abundance of Tuy, valley of the Typhus fevers Uaupes, see Guauapes Ucucuamo, mountain of Uita Ulloa: observations on the native Indians by statistics of the yellow fever, by notices of monkeys, by Uniana, peak of United States: savages of the newspapers of district of the population of extent of the slaves of the slave trade of the prairies of the Unona xylopioides Upper Orinoco: course of the cataracts of the mountains of valley of Uraba, gulf of Urariapara, the Urbana, La Concepcion de Urijino, springs of Uritucu river: cacao of crocodiles of Uruana: turtle fisheries of mission of inhabitants of Vachaco, island of Valencia: lake of ancient extent of retreat of the waters supposed outlet of temperature of islands of Neuva promontory of city of history of Valleys: general description of the of Caracas of Cariaco of Guanaguana of La Pascua, or Cortes configuration of of Tacoronte of Rio Tuy gold mines of the Valparaiso Vampire-bats Vapours: phenomena of explosions of sulphureous Varinas Vases, or funeral urns Vegetable: glue milk Vegetables, American Vegetation: various zones of total absence of remarkable power of of North and South America compared on the Higuerote on the mountains of Andalusia in the seas tropical Venezuela: capital of provinces of coasts of towns of mines of earthquake in plains of geology of political state of extent of productions of commerce of political institutions of mountains of basin of hot springs of Ventuari river Vera Cruz: port of Verbs, inflexions of Vespucci, charts of Vesuvius Vibora, La Vichada, or Visita river Victoria: corn of town of Vieja Guayana Villa: de Cura de Fernando de Apure de Laguna de Orotava de Upata Villages: of Missions native, of South America migratory character of Vines: zone of of Cuba Vipers Virginia Viruelas mountains Viudita, or Widow Monkey Volador, the: geographical distribution of the species Volcanic eruptions, see Eruptions Volcano: of Cayamba of Cotopaxi of Guadaloupe of Jorullo of Lancerote of Pasto of St Vincent of Teneriffe of Tungurahua Volcanoes: effects of, on the earth structure of action of isolated position of submarine effects of study of Voyages: of Columbus of Sir Walter Raleigh Vuelta de Basilio del Cochino Roto del Joval Vultures Walls, Cyclopean Wars, religious Wasps, fatal effects of the sting Water: search for, in the plains varied colours of causes of the scarcity of, after earthquakes varieties of, in the streams of the Orinoco theory of the diminution of properperties of, as a conductor of electricity temperature of hogs, see Chiguires melons spouts snakes Waters: medicinal thermal Weapons, American Wells, affected by earthquakes West India Islands: commerce of the old and new route to prevalence of fevers in volcanoes of epidemics of primitive population of sugars of the slaves of basin of the West rock Western continent, first indications of the Wheat: cultivation of, in the Canary Islands in Mexico produce of limits of the growth of of the United States White Sea: native tribes Windward Channel Winds: insalubrious, of Caracas and Italy of sand Wine: of the island of Cuba Indian from the palm-tree Wild: beasts of America man of the woods Wood: varied colours of petrifactions of of fruits Women: native Indian language peculiar to exclusion of, from religious services predilections of condition of inequality in the rights of Caribbean Javanese Words: identity of, in different languages grammatical construction of compounds of analogy of Xalapa: climate of vegetation of Xagua: bay of fresh water springs in the port of Xarayes, lake of Xeberos Xezemani Xurumu, the Yaracuy: valleys of timber of Yaruro Indians Yauli Yellalas, or rapids Yellow-fever, statistics of the Ygenris: language of the conquest of Yeguas, gulf of Yucatan, political position of Yusma mountains Zacatecas Zama river Zamang-tree Zambo Caribs Indian, dangerous rencontre with Zamboes: hamlet of republic of characteristics of banishment of the Zamuro vultures Zancudos Zapote village of road to Zarza, see Sarsaparilla Zealand, settlement of Zenu, gold of Zerepe, Indian Zipaquira, mines of Zodiac: Egyptian signs used in the Mexican Zone: of grasses and lichens of heaths of laurels Temperate vegetable physiognomy of Torrid temperature of effects of, on the constitution atmospherical purity of the springs in the organic richness of scenery of vegetable physiognomy of rivers of the insects of the constellations of the agriculture of Zones, distinct demarcation of, Terra Firma Zumpango END OF VOLUME End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Equinoctial Regions of America V3 by Alexander von Humboldt *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF AMERICA V3 *** This file should be named qnct310.txt or qnct310.zip Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, qnct311.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, qnct310a.txt Produced by Sue Asschers Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless a copyright notice is included Thus, we usually not keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the 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If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: hart@pobox.com [Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only when distributed free of all fees Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by Michael S Hart Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be they hardware or software or any other related product without express permission.] ... del Sol) on the banks of the Meta Ignorant of the idiom of the natives, they seemed to see everywhere, at the foot of the Cordilleras, the reflexion of the greatness of the temples of Iraca (Sogamozo),... south-west of the Rio Negro; that is, to Parima (or the isthmus between the Carony, the Essequibo, and the Rio Branco), and to the ancient abode of the Manaos, the inhabitants of the banks of the Yurubesh... vessels They hastened to get out of the mouth of the Amazon; and the currents, which in those parts run with violence to the north-west, led Ordaz to the coast of Paria where, in the territory of the