284 PROGRESS DOWN THE ORINOCO. 
slightest scratch being thus sufficient to produce 
death. When this crime is perpetrated at night 
they throw the body into the river. “ Every time,’ | 
said the monk, “ that I see the women fetch water 
from a part of the shore to which they do not usu- 
ally go for it, I suspect that a murder has been com- 
mitted in my mission.” | 
On the 7th June the travellers took leave of Father 
Ramon Bueno, whom Humboldt eulogizes as the 
only one of ten missionaries of Guiana whom they 
_had seen who appeared to be attentive to any thing 
that regarded the natives. The night was passed at 
the island of Cucurupara, to the east of which is the 
mouth of the Cano de la Tortuga. On its southern 
bank is the almost deserted station of San Miguel 
de la Tortuga, in the neighbourhood of which, ac- 
cording to the Indians, are otters with a very fine 
fur, and lizards with two feet. 
From the island of Cucurupara to Angostura 
the capital of Guiana, a distance of little less than 
328 miles, the travellers were only nine days on 
the water. On the 8th June they landed at a farm 
opposite the mouth of the Apure, where Hum- 
boldt obtained some good observations of latitude 
and longitude; and on the 9th met a great num-_ 
ber of boats laden with goods, on their way to that 
river. Here Don Nicolas Soto, who had accom- 
panied them on their voyage to the Rio Negro, took 
leave and returned to his family. As they advanced 
the population became more considerable, consisting 
almost exclusively of whites, negroes, and mulattoes. 
On the 11th they passed the mouth of the Rio Cau- 
ra, near which is a small lake formed in 1790 by 
the sinking of the ground in consequence of anearth- _ 
