BRIDGE OF LlAffJLS. 161 



the columns of Hercules, beyond which no white man \ms 

 been able to penetrate. It appears, that this point, known 

 by the name of the great Raudal de Guaharibos, is three- 

 quarters of a degree west of Esmeralda, consequently in 

 longitude 67 38'. A military expedition, undertaken by 

 the commander of the fort of San Carlos, Don Francisco 

 Bovadilla, to discover the sources of the Orinoco, led to some 

 information respecting the cataracts of the Gruaharibos. 

 Bovadilla had heard, that some fugitive negroes from Dutch 

 Guiana, proceeding towards the west (beyond the isthmus 

 between the sources of the Rio Carony and the Bio Branco), 

 had joined the independent Indians. He attempted an en- 

 trada (hostile incursion), without having obtained the per- 

 mission of the governor; the desire of procuring African 

 slaves, better fitted for labour than the copper-coloured 

 race, was a far more powerful motive than that of zeal for 

 the progress of geography. Bovadilla arrived without diffi- 

 culty as far as the little Eaudal* opposite the Gehette ; but 

 having advanced to the foot of the rocky dike that forms 

 the great cataract, he was suddenly attacked, while he was 

 breakfasting, by the Gruaharibos and Guaycas, two warlike 

 tribes, celebrated for the virulence of the curare with which 

 their arrows are empoisoned. The Indians occupied the 

 rocks that rise in the middle of the river, and seeing the 

 ' Spaniards without bows, and having no knowledge of fire- 

 arms, they provoked the whites, whom they believed to be 

 without defence. Several of the latter were dangerously 

 wounded, and Bovadilla found himself forced to give the 

 signal for battle. A fearful carnage ensued among the 

 natives, but none of the Dutch negroes, who, as was be- 

 lieved, had taken refuge in those parts, were found. Not- 

 withstanding a victory so easily won, the Spaniards did not 

 dare to advance eastward in a mountainous country, and 

 along a river inclosed by very high banks. 



These white Guaharibos have constructed a bridge of 

 lianas above the cataract, supported on rocks that rise, as 

 generally happens in the pongos of the Upper Marafion, in 

 the middle ot the river. The existence of this bridge, 



* It is called Raudal de abaxo (Low Cataract), in opposition to the 

 great Raudal de Guaharibos, which is situated higher up toward th 

 east. 



