Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This
Opinion Appears To Me Hardly Probable; But I Relate What I Have
Collected, And Affirm Nothing Positively.
In the rocky dike that crosses the Orinoco, forming the Raudal of the
Guaharibos, Spanish soldiers pretend to have found the fine kind of
saussurite (Amazon-stone), of which we have spoken.
This tradition
however is very uncertain; and the Indians, whom I interrogated on the
subject, assured me that the green stones, called piedras de Macagua*
at Esmeralda, were purchased from the Guaicas and Guaharibos, who
traffic with hordes much farther to the east. (* The etymology of this
name, which is unknown to me, might lead to the knowledge of the spot
where these stones are found. I have sought in vain the name of
Macagua among the numerous tributary streams of the Tacutu, the Mahu,
the Rupunury, and the Rio Trombetas.) The same uncertainty prevails
respecting these stones, as that which attaches to many other valuable
productions of the Indies. On the coast, at the distance of some
hundred leagues, the country where they are found is positively named;
but when the traveller with difficulty penetrates into that country,
he discovers that the natives are ignorant even of the name of the
object of his research. It might be supposed that the amulets of
saussurite found in the possession of the Indians of the Rio Negro,
come from the Lower Maranon, while those that are received by the
missions of the Upper Orinoco and the Rio Carony come from a country
situated between the sources of the Essequibo and the Rio Branco.
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