We spent the night on Isla Conserva. The Indians had lit a camp-fire near the water. Again we confirmed that the glow of the flames attracted crocodiles and dolphins (toninas) whose noise stopped us sleeping until we decided to put the fire out. That night we had to get up twice. I mention this as an example of what it means to live in the jungle. A female jaguar approached our camp-site when it brought a cub to drink water. The Indians chased it away, but we heard its cub's cries, like a cat's, for hours. A little later our large dog was bitten, or stung as the Indians say, by some enormous bats (94) that flew around our hammocks. The wound in its snout was tiny and the dog howled more from fear than pain.

The llaneros, or inhabitants of the llanos (plains), send their products maize, hides and cattle - to Cumanà harbor by the road over Imposible. We saw Indians or mulattos with mules coming towards us, rapidly moving in single file.

At dawn on the 16th of July 1799 we saw the green, picturesque coast. The mountains of Nueva Andalucia, hidden in clouds, bordered the horizon. The city of Cumana, with its fort, stood in coconut groves. At nine in the morning, after forty-one days at sea, we anchored in the harbor. The sick crawled on deck to comfort themselves with the vision of a land where they hoped they would be cured.

The vegetation in the plain surrounding the city is monotonous, although remarkably fresh due to the humidity. Its principal feature is an arborescent solanum, the Urtica baccifera, which reaches 40 feet tall, and a new species of the Guettarda genus. The ground is very fertile and could be easily watered if irrigation ditches were dug from the numerous rivers that do not dry up all year round. The most precious product in the zone is tobacco; it is solely to this plant that the small, badly built city owes its meager fame. Since the introduction of the royal monopoly (Estanco Real de Tabaco) in 1799 the cultivation of this plant in the Cumanà province is limited almost exclusively to the Cumanacoa valley. This monopolistic farming system is deeply hated by the people. The entire tobacco harvest has to be sold to the government, and to prevent or limit smuggling tobacco was concentrated in only one place. Inspectors travel the country burning plantations found outside the authorized zone, and inform against those wretches who dare to smoke their own home-made cigars. These inspectors are mostly Spaniards, as insolent as those doing the same job in Europe. This insolence has greatly contributed to the maintenance of the hatred between the colonies and the metropolis. (50)

The Upper Orinoco from its confluence with the Guaviare - Second crossing of the Atures and Maypures cataracts - The Lower Orinoco between the mouth of the Apure river and Angostura, capital of Spanish Guiana

After tobacco the most important product of the Cumanacoa valley is indigo, whose intense color makes it the equal of Guatemalan indigo. All the indigo factories that we visited are constructed along the same principles. Two vats, where the plants 'rot', are placed together. Each one measures 15 feet square and 2. feet deep. From these upper vats the liquid passes into beaters where the water-mill is placed. The axle-tree of the great wheel crosses the two beaters. It is nailed with ladles, fixed to long handles, for the beating. From another percolating vat the coloured starch passes to the drying-boxes, spread on planks of Brazil-wood on small wheels so that they can be pushed under a roof in case of sudden rain. These sloping and low roofs give the drying-boxes the appearance of hothouses from a distance. In the Cumanacoa valley the fermentation of the plant takes place amazingly quickly; usually it does not take longer than four or five hours. This can be attributed to the humidity and the absence of sun during the plant's development.

A little above the Davipe mission the Río Negro receives a branch of the Casiquiare whose existence is a remarkable phenomenon in the history of river branching. This branch emerges from the Casiquiare, north of Vasiva, under the name Itinivi; and after crossing a flat, virtually uninhabited country some 25 leagues long, pours into the Río Negro under the name of Río Conorichite. It seemed to me, near its mouth, to be 120 toises wide, and added large quantities of white waters to the black waters. Even though the Conorichite current is very fast, you shorten the journey from Davipe to Esmeralda by three days using this canal. It is not surprising to find a double communication between the Casiquiare and the Río Negro when you recall that so many American rivers form deltas when they meet other rivers. In this way the Branco and the Jupura pour into the Río Negro and Amazon through many branches. At the confluence with the Jupura there is another more extraordinary phenomenon. Before joining the Amazon this river, which is its main recipient, sends three branches called Uaranapu, Manhama and Avateprana to the Jupura, which is none other than its tributary. The Amazon thus sends its waters into the Jupura before receiving the waters of the latter back.