44 



pation for the mind. Our host often engaged 

 us to pay a visit with him to his cow, whicli he 

 had just purchased; and on the morrow, at 

 sunrise, he would not dispense with our seeing 

 it killed after the fashion of the country, that is, 

 by ham-stringing the animal, and then plunging 

 a large knife into the vertebrae of the neck. 

 This disgusting operation served to show us the 

 great address of the Chayma Indians, eight of 

 whom, in less than twenty minutes, cut up the 

 animal into small pieces. The price of the cow 

 was only seven piastres ; but this price seemed 

 to be thought very considerable. The same day 

 the missionary had paid eighteen piastres to a 

 soldier of Cumana, for having succeeded, after 

 many fruitless attempts, in bleeding him in the 

 foot. This fact, though seemingly very unim- 

 portant, is a striking proof how greatly, in un- 

 cultivated countries, the price of things differs 

 from that of labor. 



The Mission of San Fernando was founded 

 toward the end of the 17th century, near the 

 junction of the small rivers of the Manzanares 

 and Lucasperez *. A fire, which consumed the 

 church, and the huts of the Indians, induced 

 the capuchins to place the village in it's present 

 fine situation. The number of families is in- 

 creased to one hundred, and the missionary ob- 



* Caulin, Hist, corogr. de la Nueva Andalusia, p. 309. 



