SCENERY OF THE CASIQUIARE. 231 



cannot imagine," said the missionary, " all the perversity chap.xvhi 

 of this Indian family. You receive men of a new tril)e ^., — 

 into the village ; they appear to he good, mild, and in- of tiie 

 dustrious ; but suffer tlicm to take part in an incursion ^"'^"'"*- 

 to bring in the natives, and you can scarcely prevent 

 them from murdering all they meet, and hiding some 

 portions of the dead bodies." The travellers had in 

 t-lieir canoe a fugitive Indian from the Guaisia, who in a 

 few weeks had become sufficiently civilized to be very Camubalism 

 useful. As he was mild and intelligent, they had some 

 desire of taking him into their service ; but discovering 

 that his anthropophagous propensities remained they 

 gave up the idea. He told them that " his relations (the 

 I^eople of his tribe) preferred the inside of the hands in 

 man, as in bears," accompanying the assertion with 

 gestures of savage joy. 



Although the Indians of the Casiquiare readily return inteiiiirence 

 to their barbarous habits, they manifest, while in the »'"i iiuiustry 

 missions, intelligence, industry, and a great facility in 

 leai'ning the Spanish tongue. As the villages are usually 

 inhabited by three or four tribes who do not understand 

 each other, the language of their instructor affords a 

 general means of communication. The soil on the 

 Casiquiare is of excellent quality. Rice, beans, cotton, 

 sugar, and indigo, thrive wherever they have been tried ; 

 but the humidity of the air, and the swarms of insects, 

 oppose almost insuperable obstacles to cultivation. Im- 

 mense bands of white ants destroy every thing that comes 

 in their way ; insomucli, that when a missionary would 

 cultivate salad, or any European culinary vegetable, he 

 fills an old boat with soil, and having sown the seeds 

 suspends it with cords, or elevates it on posts. 



From the 14tli to the 21st the travellers continued to Ascent of 

 ascend the Casiquiare, which flowed with considerable the Casi- 

 rapidity, having a breadth of 426 yards, and bordered ^^^''^• 

 by two enormous walls of trees hung with lianas. No 

 openings could be discovered in these fences ; and at 

 night the Indians had to cut a small spot with their 

 hatchets to make room enough for their beds, it being 



