EXPEDITION OF SOLAJfO. 



1756, under the order of Solano, awakened suspicion in 

 this chief of the Guaypunaves. He was on the point of 

 attempting a contest with them, when the Jesuits made 

 him sensible that it would be his interest to remain at 

 peace with the Christians. Whilst dining at the table of 

 the Spanish general, Cuseru was allured by promises, and 

 the prediction of the approaching fall of his enemies. From 

 being a king he became the mayor of a village ; and con- 

 sented to settle with his people at the new mission of 

 San Fernando de Atabapo. Such is most frequently the 

 end of those chiefs whom travellers and missionaries style 

 Indian princes. " In my mission," says the honest father 

 Gili, " I had five reyecillos, or petty kings, those of the 

 Tamanacs, the Avarigotes, the Parecas, the Quaquas, and 

 the Maypures. At church I placed them in file on the same 

 bench ; but I took care to give the first place to Monaiti, 

 king of the Tamanacs, because he had helped me to found 

 the village; and he seemed quite proud of this prece- 

 dency. 



When Cuseru, the chief of the Guaypunaves, saw the 

 Spanish troops pass the cataracts, he advised Don Jose 

 Solano to wait a whole year before he formed a settlement 

 on the Atabapo ; predicting the misfortunes which were not 

 slow to arrive. " Let me labour with my people in clearing 

 the ground," said Cuseru to the Jesuits; I will plant cassava, 

 and vou will find hereafter wherewith to feed all these 

 men/' Solano, impatient to advance, refused to listen to 

 the counsel of the Indian chief, and the new inhabitants of San 

 Fernando had to suffer all the evils of scarcity. Canoes 

 were sent at a great expense to New Grenada, by the Meta 

 and the Vichada, in search of flour. The provision arrived 

 too late, and many Spaniards and Indians perished of those 

 diseases which are produced in every climate by want ana 

 moral dejection. 



Some traces of cultivation are still found at San Fernando. 

 Every Indian has a small plantation of cacao-trees, which 

 produce abundantly in the fifth year ; but they cease to bear 

 Fruit sooner than in the valleys of Aragua. There are some 

 savannahs and good pasturage round San Fernando, but 

 hardly seven or eight cows are to be found, the remains of a 

 herd which was brought into these countries at 



