PUERTO SEDENO.
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period o f the high waters, several m o n t h s are lost in c o n t e n d i n g with the currents o f the O r i n o c o , t h e A p u r e , and the Rio de Santo D o m i n g o . T h e b o a t m e n are forced to carry o u t ropes to the trunks o f trees, and thus warp their canoes u p . I n the great sinuosities o f t h e river w h o l e days are s o m e times passed without advancing more than t w o or three hundred toises. Since m y return to E u r o p e , the c o m m u n i cations between the m o u t h o f the O r i n o c o and the provinces situated on the eastern slope of the mountains o f Merida, P a m p l o n a , and Santa FĂŠ de B o g o t a , have b e c o m e m o r e a c t i v e ; and it may he hoped that steamboats will facilitate these long voyages on the L o w e r O r i n o c o , the P o r t u g u e s e , the B i o Santo D o m i n g o , the Orivante, the M e t a , and the Guaviare. Magazines o f cleft wood might be formed, as o n the banks o f the great rivers o f the United States, sheltering them under sheds. This precaution w o u l d b e indispensible, as, in the country through which we passed, it is n o t easy to procure dry fuel lit to keep up a fire beneath the boiler o f a steam-engine. W e disembarked below San Rafael del Capuchino, on the right, at the Villa de Caycara, near a cove called P u e r t o SedeĂąo. T h e V i l l a is merely a few houses grouped t o gether. Alta Gracia, la Ciudad de la Piedra, Real C o r o n a , B o r b o n , in short all the t o w n s o r villas lying b e t w e e n the mouth o f the A p u r e and A n g o s t u r a , are equally miserable. The presidents o f the missions, and the governors o f the p r o vinces, were formerly accustomed to demand the privileges o f villas and ciudades at M a d r i d , the m o m e n t the first foundations o f a church were laid. This was a means o f persuading the ministry, that the colonies were a u g m e n t i n g rapidly in population and prosperity. Sculpt tired figures o f the sun and m o o n , such as I have already mentioned, are found near Caycara, at the Cerro del Tirano.* I t is " the work of the, old people" (that is o f our fathers), say the natives. O n a rock * The tyrant after whom these mountains are named is not Lope de Aguirre, but probably, as the name of the neighbouring cove seems to prove, the celebrated conquistador Antonio Sedeno, who, after the expedition of Herrera, sought to penetrate by the Orinoco to the Rio Meta, He was in a state of rebellion against the audiencia of Santo Domingo. I know not how Sedino came to Caycara : for historians relate that he was poisoned on the banks of the Rio Tisnado, one of the tributary streams of the Portuguesa. VOL. II. 2 L