The expedition was led by Everard im Thurn, a British botanist working for the colonial government of British Guiana, and Harry Perkins, a British administrator.

They were accompanied by Pemon guides and porters without whom the expedition would have been impossible — the local knowledge of terrain, weather, and supply was essential to success.

Im Thurn’s account of the expedition, published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, was the first detailed European-language description of the summit landscape.

He described the extraordinary terrain of the plateau — the black rock, the standing pools, the unusual vegetation — in terms that conveyed genuine wonder and puzzlement.

He was a botanist, and the plants he found on the summit were unlike anything in his professional experience with tropical lowland flora.