76 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



in Christian doctrine. They are apportioned and pay tribute to their 

 encomenderos ; but neither the Bishop of Puerto Rico, who has them 

 under his charge, nor those who take pains to collect their tribute, 

 provide them with priests to catechize them and teach them the 

 doctrines of our Holy Faith — and yet they are baptized. 



198. The island of Granada lies on a N. and S. line with the 

 island of Trinidad, some 24 leagues distant ; it is thickly peopled with 

 Carib Indians called Camajuyas, which means lightning from heaven, 

 since they are brave and warlike. Near this island they possess another 

 small one, called Potopoturo, inhabited by more than 500 Negroes 

 whom they hold in slavery from a Portuguese ship, which for its 

 misfortune blundered on that island ahead of its schedule, and they 

 murdered the Portuguese. There will be on this island and the other 

 inhabited Windward Islands, over 18,000 Indians. 



199. These Granada Indians start out every year in late July or 

 early August with their dugout navies on robbing expeditions along 

 the whole coast of the Spanish Main, the islands of Trinidad and 

 Margarita and others, and they have carried off many Christian 

 Indians from them, eaten them up and devastated their land. These 

 savages are so cruel that there is no mercy for those who fall into 

 their hands, for they kill and eat them. 



200. And it will aid the service of God and of His Majesty to 

 conquer them, bringing them under subjection or killing the male 

 Indians, by giving the commission to some powerful citizen of that 

 country, and thus getting rid of that pirates' nest of savage cannibals ; 

 with them there, no security is possible in all the surrounding terri- 

 tories and islands ; their conquest would bring quiet and tranquillity. 



Chapter XIX 



Of Other Rivers Lying between the Orinoco and the Maranon, 

 the Homes of Various Tribes. 



201. The Rio Moruga, former home of the Aruaca tribe, is 5 

 leagues beyond the mouth of the Guaini ; at its mouth the Moruga 

 unites with the mighty Rio Varuma, which has many arms, and is a 

 fine river with beautiful views, great forests, and some fruit trees, 

 and others with aromatic wood which is highly esteemed. It abounds 

 in varieties of birds which normally create sweet and dulcet harmony 

 with their songs, so that it seems like Paradise. This great river is 

 the home of three tribes, viz: Aruacas, Sapayos, and Panapios, 

 which differ verv little in dialect. 



