6 



None of the missionaries, who have described 

 the Oroonoko before me, neither Father Gumil- 

 la, Gili, nor Caulin, had passed the Randal of 

 Maypures. If the last have made known with 

 some precision the topography of the upper 

 Oroonoko, and the Cassiqaiare, this informa- 

 tion was obtained only from the military em- 

 ployed in the expedition of Solano. We found 

 but three Christian establishments, above the 

 Great Cataracts, along the shores of the Oroonoko, 

 in an extent of more than a hundred leagues ; 

 and these three establishments contained scarcely 

 six or eight white persons, that is to say, persons 

 of European race. We cannot be surprised, 

 that such a desert region should have been at 

 all times the classical soil of fable and fairy 

 visions. It is there, that grave missionaries 

 have placed nations with one eye in the fore- 

 head, the head of a dog, or the mouth below the 

 stomach. It is there they have found all that 

 the ancients relate of the Garamantes, of the 

 Arimaspes, and of the Hyperboreans. It would 

 be an error to suppose, that these simple and 

 often rustic missionaries had themselves invent- 

 ed all these exaggerated fictions ; they derived 

 them in great part from the recitals of the In- 

 dians. A fondness for narration prevails in the 

 missions, as it does at sea, in the East, and in 

 every place where the mind wants amusement. 

 A missionary, from his vocation, is not inclined 



