432 



in order to humanize the barbarous nations of 

 the Upper Maragnon, and maintain them under 

 their domination ; a system somewhat less 

 strange than that of making the natives of Ame- 

 rica speak Latin, as was gravely proposed in a 

 provincial concile at Mexico. 



We were told, that the Indians of the Cassi- 

 quiare and the Rio Negro are preferred on the 

 Lower Oroonoko, and especially at Angostura, 

 to the inhabitants of the other missions, on 

 account of their intelligence and activity. Those 

 of Mandavaca are celebrated among the tribes 

 of their own race, for the fabrication of the 

 curare poison, which does not yield in strength 

 to the curare of Esmeralda. Unhappily this 

 fabrication occupies the natives far more than 

 agriculture. Yet the soil on the banks of the 

 Cassiquiare is excellent. We find there a gra- 

 nitic sand, of a blackish brown colour, which is 

 covered in the forests with thick layers of humus , 

 and on the banks of the river with clay almost 

 impermeable to water. The soil of the Cassi- 

 quiare appears more fertile than that of the 

 valley of the Rio Negro, where maize does not 

 prosper. Rice, beans, cotton, sugar, and indigo, 

 yield rich harvests, wherever their cultivation 

 has been tried*. We saw wild indigo around 



* Mr. Bonpland found at Mandavaca, in the huts of the 

 natives, a plant with tuberose roots, exactly like cassava [yuc- 



