Note 58 — THE CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO.

p. 213.—“The Sources of the Orinoco have never been visited by any European.”

Thus I wrote respecting these sources in the year 1807, in the first edition of the “Ansichten der Natur,” and I have to repeat the same statement after an interval of 41 years. The travels of the brothers Robert and Richard Schomburgk, so important for all departments of natural knowledge and geography, have afforded us thorough investigations of other and more interesting facts; but the problem of the situation of the sources of the Orinoco has been only approximately solved by Sir Robert Schomburgk. It was from the West that M. Bonpland and myself advanced as far as Esmeralda, or the confluence of the Orinoco and the Guapo; and I was able to describe with certainty, by the aid of well-assured information, the upper course of the Orinoco to above the mouth of the Gehette, and to the small Waterfall (Raudal) de los Guaharibos. It was from the East that Robert Schomburgk, advancing from the mountains of the Majonkong Indians, (the altitude of the inhabited portions of which he estimated by the boiling point of water at 3300 F., or 3517 E. feet), came to the Orinoco by the Padamo River, which the Majonkongs and Guinaus (Guaynas?) call Paramu (Reisen in Guiana, 1841, S. 448). In my Atlas I had estimated the position of the confluence of the Padamo with the Orinoco at N. lat. 3° 12′, and W. long. 65° 46′: Robert Schomburgk found it by direct observation, lat. 2° 53′, long. 65° 48′. The leading object of this traveller’s arduous journey was not the pursuit of natural history, but the solution of the prize question proposed by the Royal Geographical Society of London in November 1834,—viz. the connection of the coast of British Guiana with the easternmost point which I had reached on the Upper Orinoco. After many difficulties and much suffering, the desired object was completely attained. Robert Schomburgk arrived with his instruments on the 22d of February, 1839, at Esmeralda. His determinations of the latitude and longitude of the place agreed more closely with mine than I had expected would be the case (S. xviii. and 471). Here let us allow the observer to speak for himself:—“I want words to describe the feelings which overpowered me as I sprang to shore. My aim was attained; my observations, began on the coast of Guiana, were brought into connection with those of Humboldt at Esmeralda: I frankly own, that in the course of this enterprise, at a time when almost all my physical powers had well nigh deserted me, and when I was surrounded by dangers and difficulties of no common nature, it was only by the recognition which I hoped for from him, that I had been encouraged to press onward with unalterable determination towards the goal which I had now reached. The emaciated figures of my Indians and faithful guides told more plainly than any words could do, what difficulties we had had to surmount, and had surmounted.” After expressions so kind towards myself, I must be permitted to subjoin the following passage, extracted from my Preface to the German Edition of Robert Schomburgk’s Account of his Travels, published in 1841.

“Immediately after my return from Mexico, I notified the direction and the routes which should be followed to explore the unknown portion of the South American Continent between the sources of the Orinoco, the mountain chain of Pacaraima, and the sea-shore near Essequibo. These wishes, which I expressed so strongly in my Rélation Historique, have at last, after the lapse of almost half a century, been for the greater part fulfilled. Besides the joy of having lived to see so important an extension of our geographical knowledge, I have had that of seeing it attained by means of a courageous and well-conducted enterprise, requiring the most devoted perseverance, executed by a young man with whom I feel united by the double bond of similarity of pursuits and efforts, and of our common country. Motives such as these have alone been sufficient to overcome the distaste which I entertain, perhaps without reason, to introductory prefaces by another hand than that of the author of the work. But in this case I could not consent to forego the opportunity of expressing, thus publicly, my heartfelt esteem for the accomplished traveller who, in pursuit of an object deriving all its interest from the mind,—namely, in the self-imposed task of penetrating from East to West, from the Valley of the Essequibo to Esmeralda,—succeeded, after five years of efforts and of sufferings (which I can in part appreciate from my own experience), in reaching the goal which he had proposed to himself. Courage for the momentary execution of a hazardous action is more easily met with, and implies less of inward strength, than does the resolution to endure patiently long-continued physical sufferings, incurred in the pursuit of some deeply-felt mental interest, and still to determine to go forward, undismayed by the certainty of having to retrace the same painful route, and to support the same privations in returning with enfeebled powers. Serenity of mind, almost the first requisite for an undertaking in inhospitable regions, passionate love for some class of scientific labour, (be it in natural history, astronomy, hypsometrics, magnetism, or aught else,) and a pure feeling for the enjoyment which nature in her freedom is ready to impart, are elements which, when they meet together in an individual, ensure the attainment of valuable results from a great and important journey.”

In discussing the question respecting the sources of the Orinoco, I will begin with the conjectures which I had myself formed on the subject. The dangerous route travelled in 1739 by the surgeon Nicolas Hortsmann, of Hildesheim; in 1775 by the Spaniard Don Antonio Santos, and his friend Nicolas Rodriguez; in 1793 by the Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Line of Para, Don Francisco Jose Rodriguez Barata; and (according to manuscript papers, for which I am indebted to the former Portuguese Ambassador in Paris, Chevalier de Brito) by several English and Dutch settlers, who in 1811 went from Surinam to Para by the Portage of the Rupunuri and by the Rio Branco;—divides the terra incognita of the Parime into two unequal portions, and serves to limit the situation of a very important point in the geography of those regions—viz. the sources of the Orinoco, which it is no longer possible to remove to an uncertain distance to the East, without interfering thereby with what we know of the course of the Rio Branco, which flows from north to south through the basin of the Upper Orinoco; while that river itself, in this part of its course, pursues for the most part an East and West direction. From political reasons, the Brazilians, since the beginning of the present century, have testified a lively interest in the extensive plains east of the Rio Branco. See the memoir which I drew up at the request of the Portuguese court in 1817, “sur la fixation des limites des Guyanes Française et Portuguaise” (Schoell, Archives historiques et politiques, ou Recueil de Pièces officielles, Memoires, &c. T. i. 1818, p. 48–58). Viewing the position of Santa Rosa on the Uraricapara, the course of which appears to have been determined with tolerable accuracy by Portuguese engineers, the sources of the Orinoco cannot be looked for east of the meridian of 65½° from Paris, (63°.8′ W. long. from Greenwich). This being the eastern limit beyond which they cannot be placed, and considering the state of the river at the Raudal de los Guaharibos (above Caño Chiguire, in the country of the surprisingly fair-skinned Guaycas Indians, and 52′ East of the great Cerro Duida), it appears to me probable that the upper part of the Orinoco does not really extend, at the utmost, beyond the meridian of 66½° from Paris (64°.08′ W. from Greenwich.) This point is according to my combinations 4°.12′ West of the little lake of Amucu, which was reached by Sir Robert Schomburgk.

I next subjoin the conjectures of that gentleman, having given the earlier ones formed by myself. According to his view, the course of the upper Orinoco to the east of Esmeralda is dedicated from South-east to North-west; my estimations of latitude for the mouths of the Padamo and the Gehette appearing to be respectively 19 and 36′ too small. Robert Schomburgk supposes the sources of the Orinoco to be in lat. 2°.30′ (S. 460); and the fine “Map of Guayana, to illustrate the route of R. H. Schomburgk,” which accompanies the splendid English work entitled “Views in the Interior of Guiana,” places the sources of the Orinoco in 67°.18′ (W. from Paris), i. e. 1°.6′ west of Esmeralda, and only 48′ of longitude nearer to the Atlantic than I had thought admissible. From astronomical combinations Schomburgk has placed the mountain of Maravaca, which is upwards of nine thousand feet high, in lat. 3°.41′ and long. 65°.38′. Near the mouth of the Padamo or Paramú the Orinoco was scarcely three hundred yards wide; and more to the west, where it spreads to a breadth of from four to six hundred yards, it was so shallow and so full of sand-banks that the Expedition were obliged to dig channels, the river bed being only fifteen inches deep. Fresh water Dolphins were still to be seen everywhere in large numbers; a phenomenon which the zoologists of the 18th century would not have been prepared to expect in the Orinoco and the Ganges.