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Show 1G2 STEPl'ES AND DESERTS. figures," -or; as he says in Portuguese, "de varias letras." We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters, arranged in lines,-but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly bodies, boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing manioc-meal. I have never found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) any symmetrical arrangement or any regular even-spaced characters. I am, therefore, disposed to think that the word uletras," in Hortsmann's journal, must not be taken in the strictest sense. Schomburgk was not so fortunate as to rediscover the rock seen by Hortsmann, but be bas seen and described others on the banks of the Essequibo, near the cascades of Warraputa. a This cascade," he says, a is celebrated not' only for its height but also for the quantity of figures cut on the rock, which have great resemblance to those which I have seen in the Island of St. John, one of the Virgin Islands, and which I consider to be, without doubt, the work of the Caribs, by whom that part of the Antilles was formerly inhabited. I made the utmost efforts to detach portions of the rock which contained the inscription, and which I desired to take with me; but the stone was too hard, and fever had taken away my strength. Neither promises nor threats could prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with a hammer to these rocks,-the venerable monuments of the superior mental cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit; and the different tribes whom we met with, though living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with them. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who appeared to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on my bead. I saw clearly that my endeavors would be fruitless, and I contented myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials." The last determination was certainly the best, and the editor of the English Journal, to my great satisfaction, adds a note to the effect that it is to be wished that no one else may be more successful than Mr. Schomburgk, and that no future traveller from civilized countries may do anything towards the destruction of these monuments of the unprotected Indians. The symbolical signs seen by Robert Schomburgk in the Valley |