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Their ammunition is long since spent, their muskets, spoilt by the perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are left behind as useless in a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but their swords are bright and terrible as ever; and they carry bows of a strength which no Indian arm can bend, and arrows pointed with the remnants of their armor; many of them, too, are armed with the pocuna or blowgun of the Indians more deadly, because more silent, than the firearms which they have left behind them.

There was one weapon and a very efficient one too which he knew how both to make and use. That weapon was a "gravatana," or blow-gun, sometimes called "pocuna." He had had an eye to this weapon all along, and had already provided the materials necessary for making it. These materials were of a varied character, and had cost him some trouble in getting them together.

There was one weapon and a very efficient one too which he knew how both to make and use. That weapon was a "gravatána," or blow-gun, sometimes called "pocuna." He had had an eye to this weapon all along, and had already provided the materials necessary for making it. These materials were of a varied character, and had cost him some trouble in getting them together.