. 



ESMERALDA, 



the Ventuari as far as that of the Padamo ; the Caribbee 

 prevails on the Lower Orinoco ; the Ottomac, near the 

 confluence of the Apure, at the Great Cataracts ; and the 

 Maravitan, on the banks of the Rio Negro. These are the 

 five or six languages most generally spoken. We were sur- 

 prised to find at Esmeralda many zambos, mulattos, and 

 copper-coloured people, who called themselves Spaniards 

 (Espanoles) and who fancy they are white, because they are 

 not so red as the Indians. These people live in the most 

 absolute misery ; they have for the most part been sent hither 

 in banishment (desterrados). Solano, in his haste to found 

 colonies in the interior of the country, in order to guard its 

 entrance against the Portuguese, assembled in the Llanos, 

 and as far as the island of Margareta, vagabonds and male- 

 factors, whom justice had vainly pursued, and made them go 

 up the Orinoco to join the unhappy Indians who had been 

 carried off from the woods. A mineralogical error gave cele- 

 brity to Esmeralda. The granites of Duida and Maraguaca 

 contain in open veins fine rock-crystals, some of them of great 

 transparency, others coloured by chlorite or blended with 

 actonite ; these were mistaken for diamonds and emeralds. 



So near the sources of the Orinoco we heard of nothing in 

 these mountains but the proximity of El Dorado, the lake 

 Parima, and the ruins of the great city of Manoa. A man, 

 still known in the country for his credulity and his love of 

 exaggeration, Don Apollinario Diez de la Fuente, assumed the 

 pompous title of capitan poblador, and cabo militar (military 

 commander) of the fort of Cassiquiare. This fort consisted of 

 a few -trunks of trees, joined together by planks ; and to com- 

 plete the deception, a demand was made at Madrid for the 

 privileges of a villa for the mission of Esmeralda, which, but 

 a hamlet with twelve or fifteen huts. A colony composed of 

 elements altogether heterogeneous perished by degrees. The 

 vagabonds of the Llanos had as little taste for labour as 

 the natives, who were compelled to live " within the sound 

 of the bell." The former found a motive in their pride to 

 justify their indolence. In the missions, every mulatto who 

 is not decidedly black as an African, or copper-coloured as 

 an Indian, calls himself a Spaniard ; he belongs to the gente 

 de razon, the race endued with reason ; and that reason 

 (sometimes, it must be admitted, arrogant and indolent) 



