CRUELTY TO A SLAVE. 515 



Jose de Iturriaga founded the Pueblo de Giudad Jieal^ which 

 still figures on the most modern maps, though it has not 

 existed for fifty years past, on account of the insalubrity of 

 its situation. Beyond the point where the Orinoco turns to 

 the east, forests are constantly seen on the right bank, and 

 the llanos or steppes of Venezuela on the left. The forests 

 which border the river, are not however so thick as those of 

 the Upper Orinoco. The population, which augments per- 

 ceptibly as you advance toward the capital, comprises but 

 few Indians, and is composed chiefly of whites, negroes, and 

 men of mixed descent. The number of the negroes is not 

 great; but here, as everywhere else, the poverty of their 

 masters does not tend to procure for them more humane 

 treatment. An inhabitant of Caycara had just been con- 

 demned to four years' imprisonment, and a fine of one hun- 

 dred piastres, for having, in a paroxysm of rage, tied a 

 negress by the legs to the tail of his horse, and dragged her 

 at full gallop through the savannah, till she expired. It is 

 gratifying to record that the Audiencia was generally blamed 

 in the country, for not having punished more severely so 

 atrocious an action. Yet some few persons, who pretended 

 to be the most enlightened and most sagacious 01 the com- 

 munity, deemed the punishment of a white contrary to sound 

 policy, at the moment when the blacks of St. Domingo were 

 in complete insurrection. Since I left those countries, civil 

 dissensions have put arms into the hands of the slaves; and 

 fatal experience has led the inhabitants of Venezuela to 

 regret that they refused to listen to Don Domingo Tovar, 

 and other right-thinking men, who, as early as the year 

 1795, lifted up their voices in the cabildo of Caracas, to pre- 

 vent the introduction of blacks, and to propose means that 

 might ammeliorate their condition. 



After having slept on the 10th of June in an island in the 

 middle of the river, (I believe that called Acaru by Father 

 Caulin), we passed the mouth of the Rio Caura. This, the 

 Aruy and the Oarony, are the largest tributary streams 

 which the Orinoco receives on its right bank. All the 

 Christian settlements are near the mouth of the river; and 

 the villages of San Pedro, Aripao, Urbani, and Guaragua- 

 raico, succeed each other at the distance of a few leagues. 

 The first and the most populous, contains only about twc 



2 i, 2 



