BELIGIOUS nrcuBSicms. 337 



San Fernando de Atabapo, San Carlos, and San Francisco 

 Solano, are the most considerable settlements among the 

 missions of the Upper Orinoco. At San Fernando, as well 

 as in the neighbouring villages of San Balthasar and 7 r vita, 

 the abodes of the priests are neatly-built houses, cove^r 1 by 

 lianas, and surrounded by gardens. The tall trunks of the 

 pirijao palms were the most beautiful ornaments of these 

 plantations. In our walks, the president of the mission 

 gave us an animated account of his incursions on the Bio 

 Guaviare. He related to us how much these journeys, 

 undertaken "for the conquest of souls," are desired by the 

 1 udians of the missions. All, even women and old men, take 

 part in them. Under the pretext of recovering neophytes 

 who have deserted the village, children above eight or ten 

 years of age are carried oif, and distributed among the 

 Indians of the missions as serfs, or poitos. According to the 

 astronomical observations I took on the banks of the Ata- 

 bapo, and on the western declivity of the Cordillera of tho 

 Andes, near the Paramo de la suma Paz, the distance is one 

 hundred and seven leagues only from San Fernando to the 

 first villages of the provinces of Caguan and San Juan de 

 los Llanos. I was assured also by some Indians, who dwelt 

 formerly to the west of the island of Amanaveni, beyond 

 the confluence of the Bio Supavi, that going in a boat on 

 the Guaviare (in the manner of the savages) beyond the 

 strait (angostura) and the principal cataract, they met, at 

 three days' distance, bearded and clothed men, who came in 

 search of the eggs of the terekay turtle. This meeting 

 alarmed the Indians so much, that they fled precipitately, 

 redescending the Guaviare. It is probable, that these 

 bearded white men came from the villages of Aroma and 

 San Martin, the Eio Guaviare being formed by the union of 

 the rivers Ariari and Guayavero. We must not be sur- 

 prised that the missionaries of the Orinoco and the Atabapfr 

 little suspect how near they live to the missionaries of 

 Mocoa, Bio Fragua, and Caguan. In these desert countries, 

 the real distances can be known only by observations of 

 the longitude. It was in consequence of astronomical 

 data, and the information I gathered in the convents of 

 Popayan and of Pasto, to the west of the Cordillera of 

 the Andes, that I formed an accurate idea of the respective 



VOL. II. Z 



