SITUATION OF ESMERA.LI)i. 437 



eive q .autity of moaquitos. The site of the mission is highly 

 picturesque ; the surrounding country is lovely, and of great 

 fertility. I never saw plantains of so large a size as these: 

 and indigo, sugar, and cacao might be produced in abun- 

 dance, if any trouble were taken for their cultivation. The 

 Cerro Duida is surrounded with fine pasturage ; and if the 

 Observantins of the college of Piritu partook a little of he 

 industry of the Catalonian Capuchins settled on the banks 

 of the Carony, numerous herds would be seen wandering be- 

 tween the Cunucunumo and the Padamo. At present, not 

 a cow or a horse is to be found ; and the inhabitants, victims 

 of their own indolence, are often reduced to eat the flesh of 

 alouate monkeys, and flour made from the bones of fish, of 

 which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. A little 

 cassava and a few plantains only are cultivated ; and when 

 the fishery is not abundant, the natives of a country so fa- 

 voured by nature are exposed to the most cruel privations. 



The pilots of the small number of boats that go from the 

 Eio Negro to Angostura by the Cassiquiare are afraid to 

 ascend as far as Esmeralda, and therefore that mission would 

 have been much better placed at the point of the bifurcation 

 of the Orinoco. It is probable that this vast country will 

 not always be doomed to the desertion in which it has 

 hitherto been left, owing to the errors of monkish adminis- 

 tration and the spirit of monopoly that characterises cor- 

 porations. We may even predict on what points of the 

 Orinoco industry and commerce will become most active. 

 In every zone, population is concentred at the mouth of 

 tributary streams. The Eio Apure, by which the pro- 

 ductions of the provinces of Varinas and Merida are ex- 

 ported, will give great importance to the little town of 

 Cabruta, which will then be m rivalship with San Fernando 

 de Apure, where all commerce has hitherto centred. Higher 

 up, a new settlement will be fonned at the confluence of 

 the Meta, which communicates with New Grenada by the 

 Llanos of Casanare. The two missions of the Cataracts will 

 increase, from the activity to which the transport of boats 

 at those points will give rise; for an unhealthy and 

 damp camnte, and the swarming of mosquitos, will aa 

 little impede the progress of cultivation at tne Orinoco aa 

 at the Rio Magdalena, whenever a powerful mercantile 



