MISSIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 21 



known to us another tribe of Guayanos * in the southern 

 hemisphere, living in the thick forests of Parana. Though 

 it cannot be denied in general, that in consequence of dis- 

 tant migrations/!* the nations that are settled north and 

 south of the Amazon have had communications with each 

 other, I will not decide whether the Guayanos of Parana 

 and of Uruguay exhibit any other relation to those of 

 Carony, than that of an homonomy, which is perhaps only 

 accidental. 



The most considerable Christian settlements are now 

 concentrated between the mountains of Santa Maria, the 

 mission of San Miguel, and the eastern bank of the Carony, 

 from San Buenaventura as far as Guri and the embarcadero 

 of San Joaquin ; a space of ground which has not more than 

 four hundred and .sixty square leagues of surface. The 

 savannahs to the east and south are almost uninhabited; 

 we find there only the solitary missions of Belem, Tumu- 

 remo, Tupuquen, Puedpa, and Santa Clara. It were to be 

 wished that the spots preferred for cultivation were distant 

 from the rivers, where the land is higher, and the air more 

 favourable to health. The Bio Carony, the waters of w r hich, 

 of an admirable clearness, are not well stocked with fish, is 

 free from shoals from the Villa de Barceloneta, a little 

 above the confluence of the Paragua, as far as the village ot 

 Guri. Farther north it winds between innumerable islands 

 and rocks ; and only the small boats of the Caribs venture 

 to navigate amid these raudales, or rapids of the Carony. 

 Happily the river is often divided into several branches; 

 and consequently that can be chosen which, according to 

 the height of the waters, presents the fewest whirlpools and 

 shoals. The great fall, celebrated for the picturesque beauty 

 of its situation, is a little above the village of Aguacaqua, or 

 Carony, which in my time had a population of seven hundred 

 Indians. This cascade is said to be from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high ; but the bar does not cross the whole bed of the 

 river, which is more than three hundred feet broad. When 

 the population is more extended toward the east, it will 

 avail itself of the course of the small rivers Imataca ami 

 Aquire, the navigation of which is pretty free from danger, 



* They are also called Gnananas, or Gualachas. 

 f Like the celebrated migrations of the Omayuafi, or Qmegva*. 



