SUPPOSED HIDDEN TBEASTTBE. 



as concealing a treasure I had discovered, jointly with the 

 missionary of Cariehana, amid the tombs of the Indians. 

 It is asserted fciat the Jesuits of Santa Fe de Bogota were 

 apprised beforehand of the destruction of their company ; 

 and that, in order to save the riches they possessed m 

 money and precious vases, they sent them, either by t 

 Bio Meta or the Yichada, to the Orinoco, with orders to 

 have them hidden in the islets amid the raudales. 

 treasures I am supposed to have appropriated unknown t 

 my superiors. The Audencia of Caracas brought a com- 

 plaint before the governor of Guiana, and we were ordered 

 to appear in person. We uselessly performed a journey ot 

 one hundred and fifty leagues; and, although we declared 

 that we had found in the cavern only human bones, am 

 dried bats and polecats, commissioners were gravely no- 

 minated to come hither and search on the spot for the 

 supposed treasures of the Jesuits. We shall wait long tor 

 these commissioners. When they have gone up the Ori- 

 noco as far as San Borja, the fear of the mosquitos wiU 

 prevent them from going farther. The doud of flies which 

 envelopes us in the raudales is a good defence. 



The account given by the missionary was entirely COT 

 formable to what we afterwards learned at Angostura iror 

 the governor himself. Fortuitous circumstances had give 

 rise to the strangest suspicions. In the caverns where the 

 mummies and skeletons of the nation of the Atures are 

 found even in the midst of the cataracts, and in the most 

 inacce'ssible islets, tie Indians long ago discovered boxes 

 bound with iron, containing various European tools, rei 

 nants of clothes, rosaries, and glass trinkets. These objects 

 are thought to have belonged to Portuguese traders of the 

 Bio Negro and Grand Para, who, before the establishment 

 of the Jesuits on the banks of the Orinoco, went up to 

 Atures by the portages and interior communications 

 rivers to trade with the natives. It is supposed thatttese 

 men sunk beneath the epidemic maladies so common in the 

 raudales, and that their chests became the property of the 

 Indians, the wealthiest of whom were usually buried wit! 

 aU they possessed most valuable during their lives, .broir 

 these very uncertain traditions the tale of hidden treasure; 

 Ua been fabricated. As in the Andes of Quito every ruine< 



