t 



512 



occasion to speak hereafter. A little cassava 

 and a few plantains only are cultivated ; and 

 when the fishery is not abundant, the natives of 

 a country so favoured by nature are exposed to 

 the most cruel privations. 



The pilots of the small number of boats, that 

 go from the Rio Negro to Angostura by the 

 Cassiquiare, being afraid to ascend as far as 

 Esmeralda, this mission would have been much 

 better placed at the point of the bifurcation of 

 the Oroonoko. It is probable, that this vast 

 country will not always be doomed to the deser- 

 tion in which it has hitherto been left from the 

 errors of monkish administration, and the spirit 

 of monopoly that characterises corporations. We 

 may even predict on what points of the Oroo- 

 noko industry and commerce will become most 

 active. x In every zone, population is concentred 

 at the mouth of tributary streams. The Rio 

 Apure, by which the productions of the provinces 

 of Varinas and Merida are exported, will give 

 great importance to the little town of Cabruta, 

 which will then be in rivalship with San Fer- 

 nando de Apure, where all commerce has hitherto 

 centred. Higher up, a new settlement will be 

 formed at the confluence of the Meta, which 

 communicates with New Grenada by the Lla- 

 nos of Casanare. The two missions of the 

 Cataracts will increase from the activity, to 

 which the transport of oats at those points will 



