PORTUGUESE SLATE-TRADERS. 427 



ransomers,* favoured this inhuman commerce. After having 

 excited the natives to make war, they ransomed the pri- 

 soners ; and, to give an appearance of equity to the traffic, 

 monks accompanied the troop of ransomers to examine 

 " whether those who sold the slaves had a right to do so, by 

 having made them prisoners in open war." From the year 

 1737 these visits of the Portuguese to the Upper Orinoco 

 became very frequent. The desire of exchanging slaves 

 (poitos) for hatchets, fish-hooks, and glass trinkets, induced 

 the Indian tribes to make war upon one another. The 

 Q-uipunaves, led on by their valiant and cruel chief Macapu, 

 descended from the banks of the Inirida towards the con- 

 fluence of the Atabapo and the Orinoco. "They sold," 

 says the missionary Grili, " the slaves whom they did not 

 eat."t The Jesuits of the Lower Orinoco became uneasy 

 at this state of things, and the superior of the Spanish 

 missions, Father Eoman, the intimate friend of Grumilla, 

 took the courageous resolution of crossing the Great 

 Cataracts, and visiting the Ghiipunaves, without being 

 escorted by Spanish soldiers. He left Carichana the 4th of 

 February, 1744; and having arrived at the confluence of 

 the G-uaviare, the Atabapo, and the Orinoco, where the last 

 mentioned river suddenly changes its previous course from 

 east to west, to a direction from south to north, he saw from 

 afar a canoe as large as his own, and filled with men in 

 European dresses. He caused a crucifix to be placed at the 

 bow of his boat in sign of peace, according to the custom of 

 the missionaries when they navigate in a country unknown 

 to them. The whites, who were Portuguese slave-traders 

 of the Rio Negro, recognized with marks of joy the habit 

 of the order of St. Ignatius. They heard with astonishment 

 that the river on which this meeting took place was the 

 Orinoco; and they brought Father Eoman by the Cassi- 

 quiare to the Brazilian settlements on the Bio Negro. The 



* Tropa de reseat e ; from reseat ar, to redeem. 



t " I Guipunavi awentizj abitatori dell' Alto Orinoco, recavan de* 

 danni incredibili alle vicine mansuete nazioni ; altre mangiondone, altre 

 conducendone schiave ne' Portoghesi dominj." " The Guipunaves, at 

 their first arrival on the Upper Orinoco, inflicted incredible injuries on the 

 other peaceable tribes who dwelt near them, devouring some, and selling 

 thei as slaves to the Portuguese." (Gili, torn, i, p. 31.) 



