238 SAN JUAN DE LOS ATURES. 



his hut, towards the close of the rainy season, found a tigress 

 settled in it with her two young. These animals had inha- 

 bited the dwelling for several months ; they w r ere dislodged 

 from it with difficulty, and it was only after an obstinate 

 combat that the former master regained possession of his 

 dwelling. The jaguars are fond of retiring to deserted 

 ruins, and I believe it is more prudent in general for a 

 solitary traveller to encamp in the open air, between two 

 fires, than to seek shelter in uninhabited huts. 



On quitting the island of Panumana, we perceived on 

 the western bank of the river the fires of an encampment of 

 G-uahibo savages. The missionary who accompanied us 

 caused a few musket-shots to be fired in the air, which he 

 said would intimidate them, and shew that we were in a 

 state to defend ourselves. The savages most likely had no 

 canoes, and were not desirous of troubling us in the middle 

 of the river. We passed at sunrise the mouth of the Rio 

 Anaveni, which descends from the eastern mountains. On 

 its banks, now deserted, Father Olmos had established, in 

 the time of the Jesuits, a small village of Japuins or Jaru- 

 ros. The heat was so excessive that we rested a long time 

 in a woody spot, to fish with a hook and line, and it was not 

 without some trouble that we carried away all the fish we 

 had caught. We did not arrive till very late at the foot of 

 the Great Cataract, in a bay called the lower harbour (puerto 

 de abaxo) ; and we followed, not without difficulty, in a dark 

 night, the narrow path that leads to the Mission of Atures, 

 a league distant from the river. "We crossed a plain covered 

 with large blocks of granite. 



The little village of San Juan Nepomuceno de los Atures 

 was founded by the Jesuit Francisco Gronzales, in 1748. In 

 going up the river this is the last of the Christian mis- 

 sions that owe their origin to the order of St. Ignatius. 

 The more southern establishments, those of Atabapo, of 

 Cassiquiare, and of Bio Negro, were formed by the fathers 

 of the Observance of St. Francis. The Orinoco appears to 

 have flowed heretofore where the village of Atures now 

 stands, and the flat savannah that surrounds the village no 

 doubt formed part of the river. I saw to the east of the 

 mission a succession of rocks, which seemed to have been 

 the ancient shor? of the Orinoco. In the lapse of ages the 



