MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO. 223 



ary informed them was caused by insects. Nothing CHAP.xviit 

 could be distinguished with a lens but parallel streaks ... r~~ 

 of a whitish colour, the form of which has obtained for 

 these animalculae the name of aradores, or ploughmen. 

 A mulatto woman engaged to extirpate them one by 

 one, and digging with a small bit of pointed wood, at 

 length succeeded in extracting a little round bag ; but 

 Humboldt did not possess suflficient patience to wait for 

 relief from so tedious an operation. Next day, how- 

 ever, an Indian effected a radical cure by means of the 

 infusion of bark stripped from a certain shrub. 



In 1755, before the expedition to the boundaries, the Slave trade, 

 country between the missions of Javita and San Baltasar 

 was dependent on Brazil, and the Portuguese had ad- 

 vanced from the Rio Negro as far as the banks of the 

 Temi. An Indian chief named Javita, one of their 

 auxiliaries, pushed his hostile excursions to a distance 

 of more than 345 miles ; and, being furnished with a 

 patent for drawing the natives from the forest " for the 

 conquest of souls," did not fail to make use of it for 

 selling slaves to his allies. When Solano, one of the javita. 

 leaders of the expedition just described, arrived at San 

 Fernando de Atabapo, he seized the adventurer, and by 

 treating him with gentleness gained him over to the 

 interests of the Spaniards. He was still living when the 

 travellers proceeded to the Rio Negro ; and, as he at- 

 tended them in all their botanical excursions, they 

 obtained much information from him. He assured 

 them, that he had seen almost all the Indian tribes 

 which inhabit the vast countries between the Upper 

 Orinoco, tlie Rio Negro, the Irinida, and the Jupura, 

 devour human flesh. Their cannibalism he considered 

 as the effect of a system of revenge, as they eat only 

 enemies who are made prisoners in battle. 



The climate of the mission of San Antonio dc Javita Rainy 

 is so rainy that the sun and stars are seldom to be seen, '^'™i'p- 

 and the padre informed the travellers that it sometimes 

 rained without intermission for four or five months. 

 The water that fell in five hours on the first of May, 



