508 



and that reason, sometimes, it must be admitted, 

 arrogant and indolent, persuaded the whites, 

 and those who fancy they are so, that to till the 

 ground is the task of slaves, of pottos and of the 

 native neophytes. The colony of Esmeralda 

 had been founded according to the principles of 

 that of New Holland ; but it was far from being 

 governed with the same wisdom. The American 

 colonists, being separated from their native soil, 

 not by seas, but by forests intermixed with sa- 

 vannahs, dispersed ; some taking the road to the 

 north, toward the Caura and the Carony ; others 

 proceeding south to the Portugueze possessions. 

 Thus the celebrity of this villa, and of the eme- 

 rald mines of Duida, vanished in a few years, 

 and Esmeralda, on account of the immense 

 number of insects that obscure the air at all sea- 

 sons of the year, was regarded by the monks as 

 a place of banishment and malediction. 



I mentioned above, that the superior of the 

 missions, when he would make the lay brothers 

 return to their duty, menaces sometimes to send 

 them to Esmeralda ; " that is," say the monks, 

 " to be condemned to the moschettoes ; to be de- 

 voured by those buzzing flies ( zancudos gritones) , 

 with which God has peopled the earth to chas- 

 tise man*." Such strange punishments have 



* " Estos mosquitos que llaman zancudos gritones que pa- 

 rece los cria la naturaleza para castigo y tormento de los 

 hombres." (Fray Pedro Simon, p. 481.) 



