TT8E OP AKTB AS POOD. 889 



portages between the Bio Paragua, the Caura, and tlie 

 Ventuario. The Caribs, when they arrived amid the nu- 

 merous tribes of the Upper Orinoco, divided themselves into 

 several bands, in order to reach, by the Cassiquiare, the 

 Cababury, the Itinivini, and the Atabapo, on a great many 

 points at once, the banks of the Gruiaima or Bio Negro, and 

 carry on the slave-trade with the Portuguese. Thus the 

 unhappy natives, before they came into immediate contact 

 with the Europeans, suffered from their proximity. The 

 same causes produce everywhere the same effects. The bar- 

 barous trade which civilized nations have carried on, and 

 still partially continue, on the coast of Africa, extends its 

 fatal influence even to regions where the existence of white 

 men is unknown. 



Having quitted the mouth of the Conorichite and the 

 mission of Bavipe, we reached at sunset the island of Dapa, 

 lying in the middle of the river, and very picturesquely 

 situated. "We were astonished to find on this spot some 

 cultivated ground, and on the top of a small hill an Indian 

 hut. Four natives were seated round a fire of brushwood, 

 and they were eating a sort of white paste with black spots, 

 which much excited our curiosity. These black spots 

 proved to be vachacos, large ants, the hinder parts of which 

 resemble a lump of grease. They had been dried, and 

 blackened by smoke. We saw several bags of them sus- 

 pended above the fire. These good people paid but little 

 attention to us ; yet there were more than fourteen persons 

 in this confined hut, lying naked in hammocks hung one 

 above another. When Father Zea arrived, he was received 

 with great demonstrations of joy. The military are in 

 greater numbers on the banks of the Bio Negro than on 

 those of the Orinoco, owing to the necessity of guarding 

 the frontiers; and wherever soldiers and monks dispute 

 for power over the Indians, the latter are most attached to 

 the monks. Two young women came down from their 

 hammocks, to prepare for us cakes of cassava. In answer 

 to some enquiries which we put to them through an inter- 

 preter, they answered that cassava grew poorly on the 

 island, but that it was a good land for ants, ana food was 

 not wanting. In fact, these vachacos furnish subsistence 

 to the Indians of the Bio Negro and the Guainia. Tbey 



