Now, when we had reached this comparatively safe
breathing-place--safe, at all events, for the moment--I changed
my mind about leaving or attempting to leave the country. Since
boyhood I had taken a very peculiar interest in that vast and
almost unexplored territory we possess south of the Orinoco, with
its countless unmapped rivers and trackless forests; and in its
savage inhabitants, with their ancient customs and character,
unadulterated by contact with Europeans. To visit this primitive
wilderness had been a cherished dream; and I had to some extent
even prepared myself for such an adventure by mastering more than
one of the Indian dialects of the northern states of Venezuela.
And now, finding myself on the south side of our great river,
with unlimited time at my disposal, I determined to gratify this
wish. My companion took his departure towards the coast, while I
set about making preparations and hunting up information from
those who had travelled in the interior to trade with the
savages. I decided eventually to go back upstream and penetrate
to the interior in the western part of Guayana, and the Amazonian
territory bordering on Colombia and Brazil, and to return to
Angostura in about six months' time.
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