290 CARIB MISSIONS. 
those who have preserved their independence. Both 
- males and females are careful to ornament their per- 
sons with paint. The Caribs, once so powerful, now 
inhabit but a small part of the country which they 
occupied at the time when America was discovered. 
They have been exterminated in the West India 
Islands and the coasts of Darien, but in the pro- 
vinces of New Barcelona and Spanish Guiana have 
formed populous villages, under the government of 
the missions. Humboldt estimates the number in- 
habiting the Llanos of Piritoo and the banks of the 
Caroni and Cuyuni at more than 35,000, and the 
total amount of the pure race at 40,000. _ 
The missionary led the travellers into several 
huts, where they found the greatest order and clean- 
liness, but were shocked by the torments that the 
women inflicted on their infants, for the purpose of 
raising the flesh in alternate bands from the ankle 
to the top of the thigh ; a practice which the monks 
had in vain attempted to abolish. This effect was 
produced by narrow ligatures, which seemed to ob- 
struct the circulation of the blood, although it did not 
weaken the action of the muscles. The forehead, how- 
ever, was not flattened, but left in its natural form. 
On leaving the mission the philosophers had 
some difficulty in settling with their Indian mule- 
teers, who had discovered among the baggage the 
skeletons brought from the cavern of Ataruipe, and 
were persuaded that the animals which carried such | 
a load would perish on the journey. The RioCari 
was crossed in a boat, and the Rio de Agua Clara | 
by fording. The same objects every where recurred; 
huts constructed of reeds and roofed with skins; 
mounted men guarding the herds; cattle, horses, 
