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.

We spent only one day at San Fernando de Atabapo, despite the village, with its pirijao palms and their peach-like fruit, promising us a delightful refuge. Tame pauxis (Crax alector) ran round the Indian huts; in one of which we saw a very rare monkey that lives on the banks of the Guaviare. It is called the caparro, which I have made known in my Observations on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. Its hair is grey and extremely soft to touch. It has a round head, and a sweet, agreeable expression.