432
THE UPPER ORINOCO.
o f the rivers. This p h e n o m e n o n , which will o n e day b e so i m p o r t a n t for the political c o n n e c t i o n s o f nations, u n q u e s tionably deserves t o b e carefully examined.
CHAPTER
XXIV.
The Upper Orinoco, from Esmeralda to the confluence of the Guaviare.— Second passage across the Cataracts of Atures and Maypures. — The Lower Orinoco, between the mouth of the Rio Apure, and Angostura the capital of Spanish Guiana. OPPOSITE to the point where the O r i n o c o forms its bifurcation, t h e granitic g r o u p o f Duida rises in an amphitheatre o n the right b a n k o f the river. T h i s m o u n t a i n , which the missionaries call a v o l c a n o , is nearly eight thousand feet high. It is perpendicular on the south and west, and has an aspect of solemn grandeur. Its summit is bare and s t o n y , b u t , wherever its less steep declivities are c o v e r e d with mould vast forests appear suspended on its flanks. At the foot o f Duida is the mission o f Esmeralda, a little hamlet with eighty inhabitants, surrounded b y a lovely plain, intersected by rills o f black but limpid water. This plain is adorned with clumps o f the mauritia palm, the sagotree o f A m e r i c a . N e a r e r t h e m o u n t a i n , t h e distance o f which from the cross o f the mission I f o u n d t o b e seven thousand three hundred toises, the marshy plain changes to a savannah, and spends itself along the lower region o f the Cordillera. L a r g e pine-apples arc there found o f a delicious flavour; that species o f bromelia always g r o w s solitary a m o n g the gramina, like our Colchicum autumnale, while t h e B. karatas, anot her species o f the same g e n u s , is a social plant, like o u r whortleberries and heaths. T h e pine-apples o f Esmeralda are cultivated throughout Guiana. T h e r e are certain spots in America, as in Europe, where different fruits attain their highest perfection. T h e sapota-plum ( a c h r a ) should be eaten at the Island o f Margareta o r at C u m a n a : the chirimoya (very different from the custardapple and sweet-sup of the West India Islands) at L o x a in P e r u ; the grenadilla, or parcha, at C a r a c a s ; and the p i n e apple at Esmeralda, o r in the island o f C u b a . T h e p i n c -