GOLD WASHINGS. 



for the ecclesiastical hierarchy, or sought to limit its p&weft 

 In 1768 Don Manuel Centurion carried oft' twenty trfM$4it4.' 

 head of cattle from the missionaries, in order to distribute 

 them among the indigent inhabitants. This liberality, 

 exerted in a manner not very legal, produced very serious 

 consequences. The governor was disgraced on the com- 

 pl;iint of the Catalonian monks, though he had considerably 

 extended the territory of the missions toward the south, and 

 founded the Villa de Barceloneta, above the confluence of 

 the Carony with the Eio Paragua, and the Ciudad de 

 Guirior, near the union of the Eio Paragua and the Para- 

 guamusi. From that period the civil administration has 

 carefully avoided all intervention in the affairs of the Capu- 

 chins, whose opulence has been exaggerated like that of the 

 Jesuits of Paraguay. 



The missions of the Carony, by the configuration of their 

 soil* and the mixture of savannahs and arable lands, unite 

 the advantages of the Llanos of Calabozo and the valleys of 

 Aragua. The real wealth of this country is founded on the 

 care of the herds and the cultivation of colonial produce. 

 It were to be wished that here, as in the fine and fertile pro- 

 vince of Venezuela, the inhabitants, faithful to the labours 

 of the fields, would not addict themselves too hastily to the 

 research of mines. The example of Germany and Mexico 

 proves, no doubt, that the working of metals is not at all 

 incompatible with a flourishing state of agriculture ; but, 

 according to popular traditions, the banks of the Caronj 

 lead to the lake Dorado and the palace of "the gilded 

 man :"f and this lake, and this palace, being a local fable, it 

 might be dangerous to awaken remembrances which begin 

 gradually to be effaced. I was assured that, in 1760, the 

 independent Caribs went to Cerro de Pajarcima, a mountain 

 to the south of Vieja Guayana, to submit the decomposed 

 rock to the action of washing. The gold-dust collected by 

 this labour was put into calabashes of the Crescentia cujete 

 and sold to the Dutch at Essequibo. Still more recently, 

 iome Mexican miners, who abused the credulity of Don 



* It appears, that the little table-lands between the mountains of 

 Upata, Cumanu, and Tupuquen, are more than one hundred and fifty 

 toises above the level of the sea. 



f El Dorado, that is, el rey 6 hombre dorado. See vol. ii, p. 400. 



