ROTH | WAR AND WARFARE 597 
these folk, or rather the Brazilians, continued until a compara- 
tively few years ago, and, under a more or less modified form, is 
probably still in existence. Schomburgk records how the upper parts 
of the River Isanna, on the Rio Negro, are thickly inhabited by 
Indian tribes against whom an expedition had recently been sent 
under pretense of pressing them for the service of the Brazilian navy, 
but in fact to send them into the interior to the mines as slaves; and 
such was the terror caused by it that many of the villages were ten- 
antless or inhabited only by women (ScQ, 253). So also at Caruma 
Mountain, on Parima, the same traveler speaks of a press gang being 
sent by the Brazilian authorities ... Out of the 40 slaves, there 
were only 9 old men, 3 of whom were upward of 50 years old, and the 
rest composed of 13 women, and 18 children under 12 years, 6 of them 
infants (ScE, 183-188). Even up to the early eighties there is the 
authority of Crévaux for stating that slavery among the Ouitotos of 
the Yapura River is encouraged by the Brazilians, and the following 
are the prices current: A child at the breast is valued at an American 
knife, a girl of 6 at a cutlass or sometimes an ax, an adult man or 
woman up to a gun (Cr, 375). 
The Spanish Jesuits, unlike the Franciscan, Dominican, and Augus- 
tinian monks, earned an unenviable notoriety for the drastic meas- 
ures they resorted to in their so-called conquest of souls. To the 
eastward of the Upper Orinoco, near the Paruasi (Paruati), at a 
place known in later times as El] Castillo, is a mountain with bare 
top projecting like a promontory. It is nearly 300 feet high and 
served as a fortress for the Jesuits. ... The garrison which the 
Jesuits maintained on this rock was not intended merely to protect 
the missions against the incursions of the Carib; it was employed 
also in an offensive war, or, as they say here, in the conquest of souls 
(conquista de almas). The soldiers, excited by the allurements of 
gain, made military incursions (entradas) into the lands of the 
independent Indians. They killed all those who dared to make any 
resistance, burned their huts, destroyed their plantations, and carried 
away the women, children, and old men as prisoners. These pris- 
oners were divided among the missions of the Meta, the Rio Negro, 
and the Upper Orinoco. The most distant places were chosen that 
they might not be tempted to return to their native country. This 
violent manner of conquering souls, though prohibited by the Span- 
ish laws, was tolerated by the civil governors and vaunted by the 
superiors of the society as beneficial to religion and the aggrandize- 
ment of the missions. ‘“ The voice of the Gospel is heard only,” said 
a Jesuit of the Orinoco, very candidly, in the Cartas Edifiantes, 
“where the Indians have heard also the sound of firearms (e/ eco de 
la polvera). Mildness is a very slow measure. By chastising the 
