i : 



CONGREGATION CF THE NATIVES. 191 



and sixty-five thousand quintals, must lay thirty-three 

 millions of eggs on the three shores where this harvest 

 is gathered. The results of these calculations are much 

 below the truth. Many tortoises lay only sixty or seventy 

 eggs ; and a great number of these animals are devoured by 

 jaguars at the moment they emerge from the water. The 

 Indians bring away a great number of eggs to eat them 

 dried in the sun; and they break a considerable number 

 through carelessness during the gathering. The number of 

 eggs that are hatched before the people can dig them up is 

 so prodigious, that near the encampment of Uruana I saw 

 the whole shore of the Orinoco swarming with little tor- 

 toises an inch in diameter, escaping with difficulty from the 

 pursuit of the Indian children. If to these considerations 

 be added, that all the arraus do not assemble on the three 

 shores of the encampments ; and that there are many which 

 lay their eggs in solitude, and some weeks later,* between 

 the mouth of the Orinoco and the confluence of the Apure ; 

 we must admit that the number of turtles which annually 

 deposit their eggs on the banks of the Lower Orinoco, is 

 near a million. This number is very great for so large an 

 animal. In general large animals moltiply less considerably 

 than the smaller ones. 



The labour of collecting the eggs, and preparing the oil, 

 occupies three weeks. It is at this period only that the mis- 

 sionaries have any communication with the coast and the 

 civilized neighbouring countries. The Franciscan monks 

 who live south of the cataracts, come to the 'harvest of 

 eggs' less to procure oil, than to see, as they say, 'white 

 faces ;' and to learn whether the king inhabits the Escurial 

 or San Ildefonso, whether convents are still suppressed 

 in France, and above all, whether the Turks continue to 

 keep quiet. On these subjects, (the only ones interesting 



* The arraus, which lay their eggs before the beginning of March, 

 (for in the same species the more or less frequent basking in the sun, the 

 food, and the peculiar organization of each individual, occasion differ- 

 ences,) come out of the water with the terekays, which lay in January and 

 February. Father Gurrilla believes them to be arraus that were not 

 able to lay their eggs the preceding year. It is difficult to find the eggs 

 of the terekays, because these animals, far from collecting in thousand! 

 on the same beach, de-posit their eggs as they are scattered about. 



