150 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



drew to their mountain fastness. Finally the Spaniards 

 came down, cutting off the spikes as they descended; they 

 feared pursuit, so left the treasure on the rock, hoping to 

 come for it when reinforcements had been secured; they 

 never returned, and to this day the fabulous wealth of the 

 Guajibos lies entombed on the top of the impregnable 

 boulder. 



The Meta is a mighty river coming from the immense 

 prairie region of eastern Colombia. It is navigable for the 

 greater part of its course, and should be the means of open- 

 ing up illimitable grazing areas when the Orinoco is thrown 

 open to free navigation. Where the Meta joins the Orinoco, 

 the latter is fully two miles wide ; near its mouth the coun- 

 try is covered with a dense scrub growth. As we neared 

 the mouth of the great river several large canoes filled with 

 Indians, of the Guajibo tribe, shot from an invisible hiding- 

 place near the bank and made for the centre of the stream. 

 They have an unsavory reputation among the river-men, 

 and Captain Solano added little gayety to the occasion 

 when he prophesied an attack and armed his men. On 

 they came, swiftly and silently, the dusky, naked bodies 

 bending in perfect unison, and the great muscles of the 

 arms and shoulders rippling in the sunlight as they drove 

 the short, pointed paddles deep into the water with vigorous 

 strokes; but our suspicions proved to be unfounded. They 

 passed rapidly on some secret mission of their own with- 

 out even condescending to glance in our direction. This 

 utter indifference to strangers, I found later, is a charac- 

 teristic common to all Indians of the Upper Orinoco. A 

 man might be drowning or stranded on a rock, but they 

 would pass him quietly in their canoes without apparently 

 seeing him; they would pay not the slightest attention to 

 his cries for help. Their ill treatment at the hands of 

 strangers has been so great that they have lost all confidence 

 in any one unknown to them, and so they retaliate by feign- 

 ing indifference to him, even in his direst need. 



The nights were usually spent aboard ship. If there was 



