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leather, which serve for whips in that country, 

 and with which the alcades are always fur- 

 nished. This unhappy woman, her hands tied 

 behind her back with strong stalks of mavacure, 

 was then dragged to the mission of Javita. 



She was there thrown into one of the caravan- 

 seras that are called Casa del Key, It was the 

 rainy season, and the night was profoundly 

 dark. Forests till then believed to be impene- 

 trable separated the mission of Javita from that 

 of San Fernando, which was twenty-five leagues 

 distant in a straight line. No other path is 

 known than that of the rivers ; no man ever 

 attempted to go by land from one village to 

 another, were they only a few leagues apart. 

 But such difficulties do not stop a mother^ who 

 is separated from her children. Her children 

 are at San Fernando de Atabapo ; she must 

 find them again, she must execute her project 

 of delivering them from the hands of Christians, 

 of bringing them back to their father on the 

 banks of the Guaviare. The Guahiba was care- 

 lessly guarded in the caravansera. Her arms 

 being wounded, the Indians of Javita bad loos- 

 ened her bonds, unknown to the missionary and 

 the alcades. She succeeded by the help of her 

 teeth in breaking them entirely ; disappeared 

 during the night ; and at the fourth rising Sun 

 was seen at the mission of San Fernando, ho- 

 vering around the hut where her children were 



