GUANAGUANA AND SAN ANTONIO. 85 



blocks of limestone, succeeded by a dense forest and two chap. vii. 

 very steep rid<?es, thev came to a beautiful vallev, about „ ": — , 



• * '■., . ^ ', . , . , . 1 "i Mansion of 



twenty miles in length, in which are situated the mis- San Antonia 



sions of San Antonio and Guanaguana. Stopping at the 

 former only to open the barometer and take a few 

 altitudes of the sun, they forded fhe rivers Colorado and 

 Guarapiche, and proceeding along a level and narrow 

 road covered with thick mud, amid torrents of rain, 

 reached in the evening the latter of these stations, 

 where tliey were cordially received by the missionary. 

 This village had existed only thirty years on the spot 

 which it then occupied, having been transferred from a 

 place more to the south, Humboldt remarks, that the Removal of 

 facility with which the Indians remove their dwellings "tillages. 

 is astonishing, there being several small towns in South 

 America wliich have thrice changed their situation in 

 less than half a century. These compulsory migrations 

 are not unfrequently caused by the caprice of an eccle- 

 siastic ; and as the houses are constructed of clay, reeds, 

 and palm-leaves, a hamlet shifts its position like a camp. 



The mission of San Antonio had a small church with church of 

 two towers, built of brick, and ornamented Avith Doric San Antonio, 

 columns, the wonder of the country ; but that of Gua- 

 naguana possessed as yet no place of worship, although 

 a spacious house had been built for the padre, the 

 terraced roof of which was ornamented with numerous 

 chimneys like turrets, and which, he informed the 

 travellers, had been erected for no other purpose than 

 to remind him of his native country. The Indians Cultivation 

 cultivate cotton. The machines by which they separate °^ '^'J"'^" 

 the wool from the seeds are of very simple construction, 

 consisting of wooden cylinders of very small diameter, 

 made to revolve by a treadle. Maize is the article on 

 which they principally depend for food ; and when it 

 happens to be destroyed by a protracted drought, they 

 betake themselves to the surrounding forests, where they 

 find subsistence in succulent plants, cabbage-palms, fern- 

 roots, and the produce of various trees. 



Proceeding towards the valley of Caripe, the travellers 



