BANDITS 01 TIIE LLANOS. 93 



globe, because in the whole of the Sierra da la Parima, be- 

 tween the right bank of the Orinoco and the Rio Negro, 

 there is, as in Scandinavia, a tobil absence of secondary 

 formations. The red sandstone, containing some vestiges 

 of fossil wood (of the family of monocotyledons), is seen 

 everywhere in the plains of Calabozo : farther east it is 

 overlaid by calcareous and gypseous rocks, which conceal it 

 from the research of the geologist. The marly gypsum, of 

 which we collected specimens near the Carib mission of 

 Cachipo, appeared to me to belong to the same formation 

 as the gypsum ot Ortiz. To class it according to the type 

 of European formations, I would range it among the gyp- 

 sums, often muriatiterous, that cover the Alpine limestone 

 or zechstein. Farther north, in the direction of the mission 

 of San Josef de Curataquiche, M. Bonpland picked up in 

 the plain some fine pieces of riband jasper, or Egyptian 

 pebbles. We did not see them in their native place en- 

 chased in the rock, and cannot determine whether they 

 belong to a very recent conglomerate, or to that limestone 

 which we saw at the Morro of Nueva Barcelona, and which 

 is not transition limestone, though it contains beds of 

 schistose jasper (kieselschiefer). 



We rested on the night of the 16th of July in the Indian 

 village of Santa Cruz de Cachipo. This mission, founded 

 in 1749 by several Carib families, who inhabited the inun- 

 dated and unhealthy banks of the Lagunetas de Auache, 

 opposite the confluence of the Zir Puruay with the Orinoco. 

 A\ "e lodged at the house of the missionary, Fray Jose de las 

 Piedras ; and, on examining the registers of the parish, we 

 saw how rapidly the prosperity of the community has been 

 advanced by his zeal and intelligence. Since we had reached 

 the middle of the plains, the heat had increased to such a 

 degree, that we should have preferred travelling no more 

 during the day ; but we were without arms, and the Llanos 

 were then infested by large numbers of robbers, who at- 

 tacked and murdered the whites who fell into their hands. 

 Nothing can be worse than the administration of justice in 

 these colonies. We every where iound the prisons fitted 

 with malefactors, on whom sentence is not passed till after 

 the lapse of seven or eight years. Nearly a third of the 

 prisoners succeed in making their escape ; and the unpoo- 



