AFFECTING INCIDENT. 347 



desirable to capture children, who may be treated in the 

 mission as poitos, or slaves of the Christians. The prisoners 

 were carried to San Fernando, in the hope tl at the mother 

 would be unable to find her way back to her home by land. 

 Separated from her other children who had accompanied their 

 father on the day in which she had been carried off, the 

 unhappy woman showed signs of the deepest despair. She 

 attempted to take back to her home the children who had 

 been seized by the missionary ; and she fled with them 

 repeatedly from the village of San Fernando. But the 

 Indians never failed to recapture her ; and the missionary, 

 after having caused her to be mercilessly beaten, took the 

 cruel resolution of separating the mother from the two 

 children who had been carried off with her. She was con- 

 veyed alone to the missions of the Rio Negro, going up 

 the Atabapo. Slightly bound, she was seated at the bow 

 of the boat, ignorant of the fate that awaited her ; but she 

 judged by the direction of the sun, that she was removing 

 farther and farther from her hut and her native country. 

 She succeeded in breaking her bonds, threw herself into 

 the water, and swam to the left bank of the Atabapo. The 

 current carried her to a shelf of rock, which bears her 

 name to this day. She landed and took shelter in the 

 woods, but the president of the missions ordered the 

 Indians to row to the shore, and follow the traces of the 

 G-uahiba. In the evening she was brought back. Stretched 

 upon the rock (la Piedra de la Madre) a cruel punishment 

 was inflicted on her with those straps of manati leather, 

 which serve for whips in that country, and with which the 

 alcaldes are always furnished. This unhappy woman, her 

 hands tied behind her back with strong stalks of mavacure, 

 was then dragged to the mission of Javita. 



She was there thrown into one of the caravanserais, 

 called las Casas del Hey. It was the rainy season, and the 

 night was profoundly dark. Forests till then believed to 

 be impenetrable separated the mission of Javita from that 

 of San Fernando, which was twenty-five leagues distant in 

 a straight line. No other route is known than that by the 

 rivers; no man ever attempted to go by land from one 

 village to another. But such difficulties could not deter 

 a mother, separated from her children. The Guahfta vraa 



