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dered to appear in person. We took a useless 

 journey of one hundred and fifty leagues ; and 

 although we declared, that we had found in the 

 caverns only human bones, and dried bats and 

 polecats, commissioners were gravely nominated 

 to come hither, and inspect on the spot what 

 remains of the treasures of the jesuits. We 

 shall wait a long time for these commissioners. 

 When they have gone up the Oroonoko as far 

 as San Borja, the fear of the moschettoes will 

 prevent them from going farther. The cloud of 

 fires (nube de moscas), which envelops us in the 

 raudals, is a good defence." 



The account given by the missionary was 

 entirely conformable to what we afterward learn- 

 ed at Angostura from the mouth of the go- 

 vernor. Fortuitous circumstances had given rise 

 to the strangest suspicions. In the caverns, 

 where the mummies and skeletons of the na- 

 tion of the Atures are found, even in the midst 

 of the cataracts, and in the most inaccessible 

 islets, the Indians long ago discovered boxes 

 bound with iron, containing various European 

 tools, remnants of clothes, rosaries, and glass 

 trinkets. These objects are thought to have 

 belonged to Portugueze traders of the Rio Ne- 

 gro and Grand Para, who, before the establish- 

 ment of the jesuits on the banks of the Oroono- 

 ko, went up to Atures by portages and the inte- 

 rior communications of rivers, in order to traffic 



