210 



duration. The Caribbees returned in such great 

 numbers, that only a feeble remnant of the 

 anthropophagous Cabres was left on the banks of 

 the Cuchivero. 



Cocuy and Cuseru were carrying on a war 

 of extermination on the Upper Oroonoko, when 

 Solano arrived at the mouth of the Guaviare. 

 The former had embraced the cause of the 

 Portugueze ; the latter was a friend of the Je- 

 suits, and gave them warning every time that 

 the Manitivitanoes were marching against the 

 Christian establishments of Attires and Cari- 

 chana. Cuseru made himself a Christian a few 

 days only before his death ; but in battle he 

 wore on his left hip a crucifix, which had been 

 given him by the missionaries, and through 

 which he believed himself invulnerable. We 

 were told an anecdote^ that paints the violence 

 of his character. He had married the daughter 

 of an Indian chief of the Rio Temi. In a pa- 

 roxysm of rage against his father-in-law, he 

 declared to his wife, that he was going to fight 

 with him ; she reminded him of the courage and 

 singular strength of her father ; when Cuseru* 

 without uttering a single word, took a poison- 

 ed arrow, and plunged it into her bosom. 

 ^The arrival of a small body of Spaniards in 

 1756, under the order of Solano, awakened 

 suspicion in this chief of the Guaypunabis. He 

 was on the point of attempting a contest with 



