CAVEJIW OF ATARUIPE. 28C 



the cradle of so many various nations, will for ever remain 

 ttie centre of human civilization in the torrid zone. From 

 these fertile and temperate table-lands, from these islets 

 scattered in the aerial ocean, knowledge and the blessings 

 of social institutions will be spread over those vast forests 

 extending along the foot of the Andes, now inhabited only 

 by savage tribes whom the very wealth of nature hag 

 retained in indolence and barbarism. 



CHAPTEB XXI. 



Raudal of Garcita. Maypures. Cataracts of Quituna. Mouth of the 

 Vichada and the Zatna. Rock of Aricagua. Siquita. 



WE directed our course to the Puerto de arriba, above 

 the cataract of Atures, opposite the mouth of the Kio 

 Cataniapo, where our boat was to be ready for us. In the 

 narrow path that leads to the embarcadero we beheld for 

 the last time the peak of Uniana. It appeared like a cloud 

 rising above the horizon of the plains. The Gruahibos 

 wander at the foot of the mountains, and extend their 

 course as far as the banks of the Vichada. We were 

 shown at a distance, on the right of the river, the rocks 

 that surround the cavern of Atai-uipe ; but we had not 

 time to visit that cemetery of the destroyed tribe of the 

 Atures. Father Zea had repeatedly described to us this 

 extraordinary cavern, the skeletons painted with anoto, the 

 large vases of baked earth, in which the bones of separate 

 families appear to be collected; and many other curious 

 objects, which we proposed to examine on our return from 

 the Eio Negro. "You will scarcely believe," said the 

 missionaries, "that these skeletons, these painted vases, 

 things which we believed were unknown to the rest of the 

 world, have brought trouble upon me and my neighbour, 

 the missionary of Carichana. You have seen the misery 

 in which I live in the raudales. Though devoured by mos- 

 qiutos, and often in want of plantains and cassava, yet I 

 have found envious people even in this country I A white 

 man, who inhabits the pastures between the Meta and the 

 Apure, denounced me recently in tl^e Audencia of Caracas, 



VOL. n. u 



