rit. A complaisant government employee at Angostura had provided
me with a passport, in which it was set down (for few to read) that my
object in visiting the interior was to collect information concerning
the native tribes, the vegetable products of the country, and other
knowledge which would be of advantage to the Republic; and the
authorities were requested to afford me protection and assist me in my
pursuits. I ascended the Orinoco, making occasional expeditions to the
small Christian settlements in the neighbourhood of the right bank, also
to the Indian villages; and travelling in this way, seeing and learning
much, in about three months I reached the River Metal. During this
period I amused myself by keeping a journal, a record of personal
adventures, impressions of the country and people, both semi-civilized
and savage; and as my journal grew, I began to think that on my return
at some future time to Caracas, it might prove useful and interesting to
the public, and also procure me fame; which thought proved pleasurable
and a great incentive, so that I began to observe things more narrowly
and to study expression. But the book was not to be.

From the mouth of the Meta I journeyed on, intending to visit the
settlement of Atahapo, where the great River Guaviare, with other
rivers, empties itself into the Orinoco. But I was not destined to reach
it, for at the small settlement of Manapuri I fell ill of a low fever;
and here ended the first half-year of my wanderings, about which no more
need be told.

A more miserable place than Manapuri for a man to be ill of a low fever
in could not well be imagined. The settlement, composed of mean hovels,
with a few large structures of mud, or plastered wattle, thatched
with palm leaves, was surrounded by water, marsh, and forest, the
breeding-place of myriads of croaking frogs and of clouds of mosquitoes;
even to one in perfect health existence in such a place would have
been a burden. The inhabitants mustered about eighty or ninety, mostly
Indians of that degenerate class frequently to be met with in small
trading outposts. The savages of Guayana are great drinkers, but not
drunkards in our sense, since their fermented liquors contain so
little alcohol that inordinate quantities must be swallowed to produce
intoxication; in the settlements they prefer the white man's more potent
poisons, with the result that in a small place like Manapuri one can see
enacted, as on a stage,