In the interior of South America, between the 2d and 4th degrees of North latitude, a forest-covered plain is enclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. In this district are found rocks of granite and of syenite, covered, like those of Caicara and Uruana, with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and of the sun and moon. At the present time this remote corner of the earth is entirely without human inhabitants, throughout an extent of more than 8,000 square geographical miles. The tribes nearest to its boundaries are wandering naked savages, in the lowest stages of human existence, and far removed from any thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on rocks. One may trace in South America an entire zone, extending through more than eight degrees of longitude, of rocks so ornamented; viz. from the Rupuniri, Essequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the Yupura. These carvings may belong to very different epochs, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot, which must have been of a later date than the beginning of the 16th century; and this in a wilderness where the natives were probably as rude then as at the present time. But it must not be forgotten that * * nations of very different descent, when in a similar uncivilized state, having the same disposition to simplify and generalize outlines, and being impelled by inherent mental dispositions to form rythmical repetitions and series, may be led to produce similar signs and symbols. * * * Some miles from Encaramada, there rises, in the middle of the savannah, the rock Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. It shews several figures of animals and symbolical outlines which resemble much those observed by us at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara, in 7° 5' to 7° 40' lat., and 66° 28' to 67° 23' W. long. from Greenwich. Rocks thus marked are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (in 2° 5' to 3° 20' lat.), and what is particularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles farther to the East in the solitudes of the Parime. This last fact is placed beyond a doubt by the journal of Nicholas Hortsman, 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, what had appeared to him most worthy of notice, and he deserves perhaps the more credence because, being full of dissatisfaction at having failed to discover the objects of his researches, the Lake of Dorado, with lumps of gold and a diamond mine, he looked with a certain degree of contempt on whatever fell in his way. He found, on the 16th of April, 1749, on the banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot where the river winding between the Macarana mountains forms several small cascades, and before arriving in the district immediately round Lake Amucu, “rocks covered with figures,”—or, as he says in Portugese, “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 “letras” 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 he has seen and described others on the banks of the Essequibo, near the cascade of Warraputa. “This cascade,” he says, “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 who 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 head. I saw clearly that my endeavors would be fruitless, and I contented myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials.” * * * Even the veneration everywhere testified by the Indians of the present day for these rude sculptures of their predecessors, shews that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. There is another circumstance which should be mentioned: between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, a number of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured on the face of precipices at a height which could now be reached only by means of extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the natives how these figures have been cut, they answer, laughing, 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 went in canoes at that height.” Thus a geological fancy is made to afford an answer to the problem presented by a civilization which has long passed away.

The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and mysterious of the antiquities of Guiana, are—and this has apparently never yet been pointed out—not all of one kind. In all cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though such cases are few and, as will be shown, of little moment; more generally they are graven on the rock, and these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be distinguished into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, the apparent mode of execution, and, most important of all, the character of the figures represented.

Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C. Barrington Brown, well known as a traveler in the colony. He says, for instance, that in coming down past Amailah fall (in the same district and range as the Kaieteur), on the Cooriebrong River, he passed ‘a large white sandstone rock ornamented with figures in red paint.’ When in the Pacaraima mountains, on the Brazilian frontier, I heard of the existence of similar paintings in that neighborhood, but was unable to find them. Mr. Wallace, in his account of his ‘Travels on the Amazons,’ mentions the occurrence of similar drawings in more than one place near the Amazons; and from these and other accounts it seems probable that they occur in various parts of South America. If, as seems likely, these figures are painted with either of the red pigments which the Indians use so largely to paint their own bodies as well as their weapons and other implements, or, as is also possible, with some sort of red earth, they must be modern, the work of Indians of the present day; for these red pigments would not long withstand the effects of the weather, especially where, as in the case quoted from Mr. Brown, the drawings are on such an unenduring substance as sandstone. Some further account of these paintings is, however, much to be desired; for, though they are probably modern, it would be very interesting to know whether the designs resemble those depicted on the engraved rocks, or are of the kind with which the Indian at the present time ornaments both his own skin and his household utensils and paddles. It may be mentioned that in the Christy collection there is a stone celt from British Guiana on which are painted lines very closely resembling in character those which the Indian commonly paints on his own body.

The engraved rocks, on the contrary, must be of some antiquity; that is to say, they must certainly date from a time before the influence of Europeans was much felt in Guiana. As has already been said, the engravings are of two kinds and are probably the work of two different people; nor is there even any reason to suppose that the two kinds were produced at one and the same time.

These two kinds of engraving may, for the sake of convenience, be distinguished as ‘deep,’ [a typical example of which is in Figure 2] and ‘shallow’ [typical example Figure 3,] respectively, according as the figures are deeply cut into the rock or are merely scratched on the surface. The former * * vary from one-eighth to one-half of an inch, or even more, in depth; the latter are of quite inconsiderable depth. This difference probably corresponds with a difference in the means by which they were produced. The deep engravings seem cut into the rock with an edged tool, probably of stone; the shallow figures were apparently formed by long continued friction with stones and moist sand. The two kinds seem never to occur in the same place or even near to each other; in fact, a distinct line may almost be drawn between the districts in which the deep and shallow kinds occur, respectively; the deep * * form occurs at several spots on the Mazeruni, Essequibo, Ireng, Cotinga, Potaro, and Berbice Rivers. The shallow form has as yet only been reported from the Corentyn River and its tributaries, where, however, examples occur in considerable abundance. But the two kinds differ not only in the depth of incision, in the apparent mode of their production, and in the place of their occurrence, but also—and this is the chief difference between the two—in the figures represented.

They (the shallow engravings) seem always to occur on comparatively large and more or less smooth surfaces of rock, and rarely, if ever, as the deep figures, on detached blocks of rock, piled one on the other. The shallow figures, too, are generally much larger, always combinations of straight or curved lines in figures much more elaborate than those which occur in the deep engravings; and these shallow pictures always represent not animals, but greater or less variations of the figure which has been described. Lastly, though I am not certain that much significance can be attributed to this, all the examples that I have seen, face more or less accurately eastward.

The deep engravings, on the other hand, consist not of a single figure but of a greater or less number of rude drawings. * * These depict the human form, monkeys, snakes, and other animals, and also very simple combinations of two or three straight or curved lines in a pattern, and occasionally more elaborate combinations. The individual figures are small, averaging from twelve to eighteen inches in height, but a considerable number are generally represented in a group.

Some of the best examples of this latter kind are at Warrapoota cataracts, about six days’ journey up the Essequibo.

* * * The commonest figures at Warrapoota are figures of men or perhaps sometimes monkeys. These are very simple, and generally consist of one straight line, representing the trunk, crossed by two straight lines at right angles to the body line: one, about two-thirds of the distance from the top, represents the two arms as far as the elbows, where upward lines represent the lower part of the arms; the other, which is at the lower end, represents the two legs as far as the knees, from which point, downward lines represent the lower part of the legs. A round dot, or a small circle, at the top of the trunk-line, forms the head; and there are a few radiating lines where the fingers, a few more where the toes, should be. Occasionally the trunk-line is produced downwards as if to represent a long tail. Perhaps the tailless figures represent men, the tailed monkeys. In a few cases the trunk, instead of being indicated by one straight line, is formed by two curved lines, representing the rounded outlines of the body; and the body, thus formed, is bisected, by a row of dots, almost invariably nine in number, which seem to represent vertebrÆ.

Most of the other figures at Warrapoota are very simple combinations of two, three, or four straight lines similar to the so-called ‘Greek meander pattern,’ which is of such widespread occurrence. Combinations of curved lines and simple spiral lines also frequently occur. Many of these combinations closely resemble the figures which the Indians of the present day paint on their faces and naked bodies. The resemblance is, however, not so great but that it may be merely due to the fact that the figures are just such simple combinations of lines which would occur independently to the rock-engravers and to the body-painters as to all other untaught designers.

Every time a sculptured rock or striking mountain or stone is seen, Indians avert the ill-will of the spirits of such places by rubbing red peppers (Capsicum) each in his or her own eyes. For instance, on reaching the Timehri rock on the Corentyn River, I at once began to sketch the figures sculptured thereon. Looking up the next moment I saw the Indians—men, women and children—who accompanied me all grouped round the rock-picture, busily engaged in this painful operation of pepper-rubbing. The extreme pain of this operation when performed thoroughly by the Indians I can faintly realize from my own feelings when I have occasionally rubbed my eyes with fingers which had recently handled red-peppers; and from the fact that, though the older practitioners inflict this self-torture with the utmost stoicism, I have again and again seen that otherwise rare sight of Indians, children, and even young men, sobbing under the infliction. Yet the ceremony was never omitted. Sometimes when by a rare chance no member of the party had had the forethought to provide peppers, lime-juice was used as a substitute; and once, when neither peppers nor limes were at hand, a piece of blue indigo-dyed cloth was carefully soaked, and the dye was then rubbed into the eyes. These, I believe, are the only ceremonies observed by the Indians. One idea underlies them all, and that is the attempt to avoid attracting the attention of malignant spirits.

These writings or markings are visible at a greater or less distance in proportion to the depth of the furrows. In some instances they are distinctly visible upon the rocks on the banks of the river at a distance of one hundred yards; in others they are so faint that they can only be seen in certain lights by reflected rays from their polished surfaces. They occur upon greenstone, granite, quartz-porphyry, gneiss, and jasperous sandstone, both in a vertical and horizontal position, at various elevations above the water. Sometimes they can only be seen during the dry season, when the rivers are low, as in several instances on the Berbice and Cassikytyn rivers. In one instance, on the Corentyne river, the markings on the rock are so much above the level of the river when at its greatest height, that they could only have been made by erecting a staging against the face of the rock, unless the river was at the time much above its usual level. The widths of the furrows vary from half an inch to one inch, while the depth never exceeds one-fourth of an inch. Sometimes the markings are almost level with the surrounding surfaces, owing to the waste or degradation by atmospheric influences, which have acted with greater force upon the rough rock than on the polished face of the grooved markings. The furrows present the same weather-stained aspect as the rocks upon which they are cut, and both the rocks and the furrows are in some instances coated with a thin layer of the oxides of iron and manganese.

The Indians of Guiana know nothing about the picture writing by tradition. They scout the idea of their having been made by the hand of man, and ascribe them to the handiwork of the Makunaima, their great spirit. Nevertheless, they do not regard them with any superstitious feelings, looking upon them merely as curiosities, which is the more extraordinary as there are numbers of large rocks without any markings on some rivers, which they will not even look at in passing, lest some calamity should overtake them. Their Peaimen or sorcerers always squeeze tobacco juice in their eyes on approaching these, but pay no regard to the sculptured rocks. In the Pacaraima mountains, between the villages of Mora and Itabay, the path passes through a circle of square stones placed on one end, one of which has a carving upon it; some of these blocks have been thrown down and broken by the Indians, clearly proving their utter disregard for them. If then there were any traditions regarding these writings handed down from father to son, I conclude that the Indians of the present day—the most superstitious of beings—would undoubtedly treat them with awe and respect. Again, if their forefathers were as indolent as they now are, they never would have gone to the trouble of making these pictures merely for the purpose of passing away their time, which they could have more easily accomplished by lying in their hammocks from morning to night in a semi-dreamy sort of state, as their descendants do at present. As these figures were evidently cut with great care and at much labor by a former race of men, I conclude that they were made for some great purpose, probably a religious one, as some of the figures give indications of Phallic worship.

The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865, during an exploring expedition for gold mines in the province of CearÁ. Several similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of the province of CearÁ, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco and Piauhy, especially in the SertaÕs, that is, in the thinly-wooded parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of their having been seen near the coast.

In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed. On the margin they extend in some instances to fifteen or twenty yards. Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a silicious schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks have the appearance of having been made with a blunt heavy tool, such as might be made with an almost worn-out mason’s hammer.

The situation is about midway between Serra Grande or Ibiapaba and Serra Merioca, about seventy miles from the coast and forty west of the town Sobral. There are not any indications of works of art or other antiquarian remains, nor anything peculiar to the locality. The country is gently undulating, and of the usual character that obtains for hundreds of miles extending along the base of the Serra Ibiapaba.

The native population attribute all the ‘Letreiros’ (inscriptions), as they do everything else of which they have no information, to the Dutch as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch, however, only occupied the country for a few years in the early part of the seventeenth century. Along the coast numerous forts, the works of the Dutch, still remain; but there are no authentic records of their ever having established themselves in the interior of the country, and less probability still of their amusing themselves with inscribing puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a work of time, on the rocks of the far interior, for the admiration of wandering Indians.