VILLAGE OF MOKOA. 169 



unfrequent. Moroa has a population, which is mostly 

 Indian, of about tliree hundred. Scarcity of food upon 

 the Rio Negro is so great that the inhabitants often suffer 

 extremely for the want of subsistence. " But hunger never 

 comes to my house," said Seiior Level, " for, in the season 

 when tortoises appear upon the beaches, I provide myself 

 with meat against the time of famine." The Indians, less 

 provident, take no thought for the morrow but obtain 

 their food from the forest and river as their wants require. 

 Scattered through the forest and along the rivers, may be 

 seen small yuca or mandioca plantations, with patches of 

 coffee-trees and the sugar-cane, aside from which but little 

 of any thing is cultivated. Cacao and rice, generally in a 

 wild state, add to the scanty supplies of the inhabitants. 

 So rich is the soil of the Rio Negro, that, with the greatest 

 facility, abundance of every tropical product might be 

 raised ; but, rather than clear the forest and till the land, 

 the people prefer to pass a wretched life of constant priva- 

 tion and suffering. Tlie difficulty of securing means of 

 subsistence was a great annoyance to us while we were 

 upon this river. 



We found at Moroa three Spanish families, in whose 

 homes were many of the accompaniments and comforts of 

 civilized life. It was a little curious to find, in this remote 

 land, a Yankee clock; but, as is liable to be the case with 

 such inventions, it had long since ceased to be of any prac- 

 tical value to its owner, who, laboring under the delusion 

 that Americans are universal geniuses, proposed to us that 

 we repair his time-piece. After a grave examination of 

 the machine, some pulling to pieces and putting together 

 again of the parts, not less to our astonishment than his 

 delight, the pendulum moved on and the different sections 

 of the contrivance resumed their proper functions. For 

 this artistic achievement we received several preserved 

 gpeciraens of beautiful birds. 

 8 



