OF IKDUTVg. 241 



and Ventuari, live the Macos, the Salives, the Ciiracicanas, 

 Parecas, and Maquiritares, mild, tranquil tribes, addicted to 

 agriculture, and easily subjected to the discipline of the 

 Missions. The Indian of the plains differs from the Indian 

 of the forests in language as well as manners and mental 

 disposition ; both have an idiom abounding in spirited and 

 bold terms ; but the language of the former is harsher, more 

 concise, and more impassioned; that of the latter, softer, 

 more diffuse, and fuller of ambiguous expressions. 



The Mission of Atures, like most of the Missions of the 

 Orinoco, situated between the mouths of the Apure and the 

 Atabapo, is composed of both the classes of tribes we have 

 just described. We there find the Indiana of the forests, 

 and the Indians heretofore nomadic* (Indios monteros ami 

 Indios llaneros, or andantes). We visited with the mis- 

 fiionary the huts of Macos, whom the Spaniards call Piraoas, 

 and those of the Guahibos. The first indicated more love 

 of order, cleanliness, and ease. The independent Macos (I 

 do not designate them by the name of savages) have their 

 rochelas, or fixed dwellings, two or three days' journey east 

 of Atures, toward the sources of the little river Cataniapo. 

 They are very numerous. Lijce most of the natives of the 

 woods, they cultivate, not maize, but cassava ; and they live 

 in great harmony with the Christian Indians of the mission, 

 The harmony was established and wisely cultivated by th* 

 Franciscan monk, Bernardo Zea. This alcalde of the re- 

 duced Macos quitted the village of Atures fbr a few months 

 every year, to live in the plantations which he possessed in 

 the midst of the forests near the hamlet of the independent 

 Macos. In consequence of this peaceful intercourse, many 

 of the Indios monteros came and established themselves some 

 time ago in the mission. They asked eagerly for knives, 

 fishing hooks, and those coloured glass-beads, which, not- 

 withstanding the positive prohibition of the priests, were 

 employed not as necklaces, but as ornaments of the guayuco 

 (perizoma). Having obtained what they sought, they re- 



* I employ the word nomadic as synonymous with wandering, and not 

 in its primitive signification. The wandering nations of America (those of 

 ihe indigenous tribes, it is to be understood) are never shepherds ; th-;y 

 live by tibhing and hunting, on the fruit of a few treei, the farma.vom 

 pith of palm-trees, &c. 



TOL. II. ft 



