THE CARIBS AT CAM. 191 



Esmeralda and Rio Negro, had greatly increased their 

 baggage ; and, as it would have been dangerous to lose 

 sight of their herbals, they expected to make a very slow 

 journey across the Llanos. 



On the 13th they arrived at the village of Cari, the 

 first of the Caribbee missions. They lodged as usual at 

 the convent. Their host could scarcely comprehend 

 " how natives of the north of Europe could arrive at his 

 dwelling from the frontiers of Brazil by the Rio Negro, 

 and not by way of the coast of Cumana." He treated 

 them in the most poilte manner, at the same time 

 manifesting that somewhat importunate curiosity which 

 the appearance of a stranger, not a Spaniard, always ex- 

 cited in South America. He expressed his belief that 

 the minerals they had collected must contain gold ; and 

 that the plants, dried with so much care, must be medici- 

 nal. Here, as in many parts of Europe, the sciences 

 were thought worthy to occupy the mind only so far as 

 they conferred some immediate and practical benefit on 

 society. 



The travellers found more than five hundred Caribs in 

 the village of Cari; and saw many others in the sur- 

 rounding missions. They were a very tall race of men, 

 their height being from five feet six, to five feet ten 

 inches. According to a practice common in Ameri a 

 the women were more sparingly clothed than the men. 

 The former wore only the guajuco, in the form of a band. 

 The men had the lower part of the body wrapped in a 

 piece of blue cloth, so dark as to be almost black. This 

 drapery was so ample, that, on the lowering of the tem- 

 perature towards evening, the Caribs threw it over their 

 shoulders. The men cut their hair in a peculiar manner, 



