Amazonas contains a mountainous district with peaks 7000-8000 feet high, though the greater part is rather low land. There are tribes of Indians, some gentle and timid, others so savage as to prevent exploration, especially the Guaharibos, also called White Indians, far up the Orinoco beyond Esmeralda. The territory has grassy plains suited to cattle raising, but more forest land with rubber trees of the first class, a few of which in small sections have been tapped; there are natural cacao patches. Mineral wealth is indicated by the reports and specimens from the Indians. Forty miles above the confluence of the Atabapo and the Guaviare, the great Ventuari tributary, 300 miles long, enters the Orinoco from the east. 150 miles higher the famed Casiquiare or Brazo leaves the Orinoco to join the Rio Negro and Amazon. An old mission station, Esmeralda, 20 miles beyond, on the Orinoco, is the last permanent settlement of the region. The watershed, here but a slight bank along the left of the river, is entirely lacking where the Casiquiare leaves it, taking a little of the water. Farther on the diverging stream unites with the Guiania River in Colombia to form the Negro, the chief northern tributary of the Amazon. =The Delta Amacuro Territory= embraces the delta of the Orinoco, with some mountainous country at the south before reaching the boundary of British Guiana, which with the State of Bolívar is on the south; Monagas is on the west. The coast line runs northwest southeast from the Gulf of Paria, of which it forms the southern limit, to Guiana; thus nearly the whole coast faces the Atlantic. Only one settlement is found on the swampy shore, Pedernales on the Gulf, a gloomy spot with unprepossessing inhabitants. Up the Caño Pedernales there is beautiful foliage in the inundated forest, with higher lands back, where live primitive wild Indians; farther on is unflooded forest, or open savannas with rich grass for thousands of cattle; on the banks a few scattered houses. One fine cacao ranch is passed before reaching Tucupita, the capital, a dismal place, but with some signs of commercial life. Soon after, the mountains of Guayana are visible, and presently the town of Barrancas in Monagas, the lowest town and port on the Orinoco proper. CHAPTER X VENEZUELA: PORTS AND TRANSPORTATION