Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Navigation Of The Orinoco From Its Mouth As Far As The Confluence
Of The Anaveni, An Extent Of 260 Leagues, Is Not Impeded.
There are
shoals and eddies near Muitaco, in a cove that bears the name of the
Mouth of Hell
(Boca del Infierno); and there are rapids (raudalitos)
near Carichana and San Borja; but in all these places the river is
never entirely barred, as a channel is left by which boats can pass up
and down.
In all this navigation of the Lower Orinoco travellers experience no
other danger than that of the natural rafts formed by trees, which are
uprooted by the river, and swept along in its great floods. Woe to the
canoes that during the night strike against these rafts of wood
interwoven with lianas! Covered with aquatic plants, they resemble
here, as in the Mississippi, floating meadows, the chinampas or
floating gardens of the Mexican lakes. The Indians, when they wish to
surprise a tribe of their enemies, bring together several canoes,
fasten them to each other with cords, and cover them with grass and
branches, to imitate this assemblage of trunks of trees, which the
Orinoco sweeps along in its middle current. The Caribs are accused of
having heretofore excelled in the use of this artifice; at present the
Spanish smugglers in the neighbourhood of Angostura have recourse to
the same expedient to escape the vigilance of the custom-house
officers.
After proceeding up the Orinoco beyond the Rio Anaveni, we find,
between the mountains of Uniana and Sipapu, the Great Cataracts of
Mapara and Quittuna, or, as they are more commonly called by the
missionaries, the Raudales of Atures and Maypures.
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