505 



said he, " to a country, where this kind of mer- 

 chandize has no sale ; we write little here ; and 

 the dried leaves of maize, the platano (plantain 

 tree), and the vijaJio (heliconia), serve us, like 

 paper in Europe, to wrap up needles, fish hooks, 

 and other little articles, of which we are careful." 

 This old officer united in his person the civil 

 and ecclesiastical authority. He taught the 

 children, I will not say the Catechism, but the 

 Rosary ; he rang the bells to amuse himself ; and, 

 impelled by an ardent zeal for the service of the 

 church, sometimes used his choristers wand in 

 a manner not very agreeable to the natives. 



Notwithstanding the extreme smallness of the 

 mission, three Indian languages are spoken at 

 Esmeralda ; the Idapimanare, the Catarapenno, 

 and the Maquiritan. The last of these prevails 

 in the Upper Oroonoko, from the confluence of 

 the Ventuari as far as that of the Padamo * ; as 

 the Caribbee does in the Lower Oroonoko ; the 

 Otomac, near the confluence of the A pure ; the 

 Tumanac and the Maypure, at the Great Cata- 

 racts ; and the Maravitan, on the banks of the 

 Rio Negro. These are the five, or six lan- 



* The Arivirianoes of the banks of the Ventuario speak a 

 dialect of the language of the Maquiritares. The latter live 

 jointly with a tribe of the Macoes in the savannahs, that are 

 traversed by the Padamo. They are so numerous, that they 

 have even given their name to this tributary stream of the 

 Oroonoko. (See the great map of La Cruz.) 



