478 BOUTE8 OF THE SLATE TB-LDERS. 





the house before he could save these productions of the 

 industry of the Curacicanas. The neophytes of Saiita Bar- 

 bara, who think themselves very superior to these supposed 

 savages, appeared to me far less industrious. The Rio Ma- 

 uipiare, one of the principal branches of the Ventuari, ap- 

 proaches near its source those lofty mountains, the northern 

 ridge of which gives birth to the Cuchivero. It is a pro- 

 longation of the chain of Baraguan ; and there Father Gili 

 places the table-land of Si:mmeu, of which he vaunts the 

 temperate climate. The upper course of the Eio Ventuari, 

 beyond the confluence of the Asisi, and the Great Baudales, 

 is almost unknown. I was informed only, that the Upper 

 Ventuari bends so much towards the east that the ancient 

 road from Esmeralda to the Eio Caura crosses the bed of 

 the river. The proximity of the tributary streams of the 

 Carony, the Caura, and the Ventuari, has facilitated for ages 

 the access of the Caribs to the banks of the Upper Orinoco. 

 Bands of this warlike and trading people went up from the 

 Bio Carony, by the Paragua, to the sources of the Paruspa. 

 A portage conducted them to the Chavarro, an eastern tri- 

 butary stream of the Eio Caura ; they descended with their 

 canoes first this stream, and then the Caura itself, as far as 

 the mouth of the Erevato. After having gone up this last 

 river south-west, and traversed vast savannahs for three 

 days, they entered by the Manipiare into the great Eio 

 Ventuari. I trace this road with precision, not only be- 

 cause it was that by which the traffic of native slaves was 

 carried on, but also to call the attention of those, who at 

 some future day may rule the destiny of Guiana, to the 

 high importance of this labyrinth of rivers. 



It is by the four largest tributary streams, which the 

 majestic river of the Orinoco receives on the right, (the 

 Carony, the Caura, the Padamo, and the Ventuari,) that 

 European civilization will one day penetrate into this re- 

 gion of forests and mountains, which has a surface of ten 

 thousand six hundred square leagues, and which is bounded 

 by the Orinocn on the north, the west, and the south. The 

 Capuchins of Catalonia and the Observantins of Andalusia 

 and Valencia, have already made settlements in the vallies 

 of the Carony and the Caura. The tributary streams of the 

 Lower Orinoco, being the nearest to the coast and to the 



