In the interior of South America, between the parallels of 2° and 4° north lat., lies a wooded plain inclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. Here we find granitic and syenitic rocks, which, like those of Caicara and Uruana, are covered with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles, tigers, utensils of domestic use, signs of the sun and moon, &c. This remote portion of the earth is at present wholly uninhabited throughout an extent of more than 8000 square miles. The neighbouring tribes, who occupy the lowest place in the scale of humanity, are naked wandering savages, who could not possibly have carved hieroglyphics in stone. A whole range of these rocks covered with symbolical signs may be traced from Rupunuri, Essequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the Yupura, extending over more than eight degrees of longitude.
These carvings may belong to very different periods of time, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galliot,[[HR]] which must necessarily have been of a date subsequent to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and that in a wilderness where the inhabitants were probably as rude then as they now are. But it must not be forgotten, as I have already elsewhere observed, that nations of very different descent, but in similarly uncivilized conditions, possessed of the same disposition to simplify and generalize outlines, and urged by identical inherent mental tendencies, may be led to produce similar signs and symbols.[[HS]]
At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in London a memoir was read on the 17th of November, 1836, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, “On the religious traditions of the Macusi Indians, who inhabit the Upper Mahu, and a portion of the Pacaraima mountains,” and who have therefore not changed their habitation for a century (since the journey of the intrepid Hortsmann). “The Macusis,” says Sir Robert Schomburgk, “believe that the only being who survived a general deluge, repeopled the earth by converting stones into human beings.” This myth, which is the fruit of the lively imagination of these tribes, and which reminds us of that of Deucalion and Pyrrha, shows itself in a somewhat modified form among the Tamanacs of the Orinoco. When these people are asked how the human race survived this great flood, the age of waters of the Mexicans, they unhesitatingly reply, “that one man and one woman were saved by taking refuge on the summit of the lofty mountain of Tamanacu, on the banks of the Asiveru, and that they then threw over their heads the fruits of the Mauritia palm, from the kernels of which sprang men and women, who again peopled the earth.” Some miles from Encaramada there rises in the midst of the savannah the rock of Tepu-Mereme; i.e., the “painted rock,” which exhibits numerous figures of animals and symbolical signs, having much resemblance to those which we observed at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara. (7° 5′ to 7° 40′ north lat., and 66° 28′ to 67° 23′ west long.) Similarly carved rocks are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (2° 5′ to 3° 20′ lat.); and what is most striking, also 560 miles further eastward in the solitudes of the Parime. The last-named fact is proved beyond a doubt, by the journal of Nicolas Hortsmann of Hildesheim, of which I have seen a copy in the handwriting of the celebrated d’Anville. That simple and modest traveller wrote down every day on the spot whatever had struck him as worthy of notice; and his narrative deserves perhaps the more confidence from the fact that the great disappointment he experienced in having failed in the object of his researches, which was the discovery of the Lake of Dorado, with its lumps of gold and a diamond mine (which proved to be merely rock crystal of a very pure kind), led him to look with a certain degree of contempt on all that fell in his way. On the bank of the Rupunuri, at the point where the river, winding between the Macarana mountains, forms several small cascades; and before reaching the country immediately surrounding the Lake of Amucu, he found, on the 16th of April, 1749, “rocks covered with figures,” or, as he says in Portuguese, “de varias letras” (with various letters or characters). We were shown, at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs said to be characters drawn by line and rule: but they were merely ill-formed figures of the heavenly bodies, crocodiles, boa-constrictors, and utensils used in the preparation of manioc-meal. I found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) neither a symmetrical arrangement nor any trace of characters drawn with a regard to regularity in space and size. The word “letras” in the journal of the German Surgeon (Hortsmann) must not, therefore, I am disposed to think, be taken in the strictest sense.
Schomburgk did not succeed in finding the rocks observed by Hortsmann, but he has described others which he saw on the bank of the Essequibo, near the cascade of Waraputa. “This cascade,” he says, “is celebrated not only for its height, but also for the great number of figures hewn in the rock, which bear a great resemblance to those that I have seen on 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 this part of the Antilles was peopled in former times. I made the most strenuous efforts to hew away a portion of the rock carved with inscriptions, which I was desirous of taking with me; but the stone was too hard, and my strength had been wasted by fever. Neither threats nor promises could prevail on the Indians to aim a single stroke of the hammer against these rocks—the venerable monuments of the culture and superior skill of their forefathers. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit; and all the different tribes we met were acquainted with them, although living at a great distance. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions who seemed to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on my head. I now saw clearly that all my efforts were fruitless, and I was therefore obliged to content myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these monuments.”
The last resolution was undoubtedly the best, and the editor of the English journal, to my great satisfaction, subjoins in a note the remark, “that it is to be wished that others may succeed no better than Schomburgk, and that no traveller belonging to a civilized nation will in future attempt the destruction of these monuments of the unprotected Indians.”
The symbolical signs which Sir Robert Schomburgk found in the fluvial valley of the Essequibo, near the rapids of Waraputa,[[HT]] resemble, indeed, according to his observation, the genuine Carib carvings of one of the smaller Virgin Islands (St. John); but notwithstanding the wide extent of the Carib invasions, and the ancient power of that fine race, I cannot believe that this vast belt of carved rocks which intersects a great portion of South America from west to east, is actually to be ascribed to the Caribs. These remains seem rather to be traces of an ancient civilization, which may have belonged to an epoch when the tribes, whom we now distinguish by various names and races, were still unknown. The veneration which is everywhere shown by the Indians for these rude carvings of their predecessors, proves that the present races have no idea of the execution of similar works. Nay, more than this, between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, many of these hieroglyphic figures are found sculptured on the sides of rocks at a height which can now only be reached by means of extremely high scaffolding. When asked who can have carved these figures, the natives answer with a smile, as if it were a fact of which none but a white man could be ignorant, that “in the days of the great waters their fathers sailed in canoes at this height.” Here we find a geological dream serving as a solution of the problem presented by a long extinct civilization.
I would here be permitted to subjoin a remark, which I borrow from a letter addressed to me by Sir Robert Schomburgk, the distinguished traveller already mentioned. “The hieroglyphic figures are much more widely extended than you probably have conjectured. During my expedition, the object of which was the exploration of the river Corentyn, I not only observed several gigantic figures on the rock of Timeri (4° 30′ north lat. and 57° 30′ west long.), but I also discovered similar ones in the vicinity of the great cataracts of the river Corentyn (in 4° 21′ 30″ north lat. and 57° 55′ 30″ west long.) These figures have been executed more carefully than any others which I met with in Guiana. They are about 12 feet in height and appear to represent human figures. The head-gear is extremely remarkable; it surrounds the entire head, spreads far out, and is not unlike the glory represented round the heads of Saints. I left drawings of these images in the colony, which I hope some day to be able to lay collectively before the public. I have seen less complete figures on the Cuyuwini, a river which, flowing from the north-west, empties itself into the Essequibo in 2° 16′ north lat.; and I subsequently found similar figures on the Essequibo itself in 1° 40′ north lat. These figures, therefore, as appears from actual observations, extend from 7° 10′ to 1° 40′ north lat., and from 57° 30′ to 66° 30′ west long. The zone (or belt) of the sculptured rocks (as far as it has yet been investigated) thus extends over an area of 192,000 square miles, and includes within its circuit the basins of the Corentyn, Essequibo, and Orinoco—a circumstance that enables us to judge of the former population of this portion of the continent.”
Remarkable relics of a former culture, consisting of granitic vessels ornamented with beautiful representations of labyrinths, and the earthenware forms resembling the Roman masks, have been discovered among the wild Indians on the Mosquito coast.[[HU]] I had them engraved in the picturesque Atlas appended to the historical portion of my travels. Antiquarians are astonished at the resemblance of these algreco vessels to those which embellish the Palace of Mitla (near Oaxaca, in New Spain). The large-nosed race, who are so frequently sculptured in relief on the Palenque of Guatimala and in Aztec pictures, I have never observed in Peruvian carvings. Klaproth recollects having noticed that the Chalkas, a horde of Northern Mongolia, had similar large noses. It is universally known, that many races of the North American, Canadian, and copper-coloured Indians, have fine aquiline noses, which constitute an essential physiognomical mark of distinction between them and the present inhabitants of New Granada, Quito, and Peru. Are the large-eyed, fair-skinned natives of the north-west coast of America, of whom Marchand speaks as living in 54° and 58° north lat., descended from the Usuns, an Alano-Gothic race of Central Asia?
[52]. p. 20.—“Deal certain death with a poisoned thumb-nail.”
The Otomacs frequently poison their thumb-nails with curare. The mere impress of the nail proves fatal, should the curare become mixed with the blood. We have in our possession the creeping plant, from the juice of which the curare is prepared, in the Esmeralda Mission, on the Upper Orinoco, but, unfortunately, we did not find the plant when in blossom. From its physiognomy, it seems to be allied to Strychnos.[[HV]]