604 



is expected from Madrid. Let us hope, that, 

 after the arrival of this lamp, they will think 

 also of clothing the Indians, of procuring for 

 them some instruments of agriculture, and of 

 assembling their children in a school. Although 

 there are a few oxen in the savannahs round the 

 mission, they are rarely employed in turning the 

 mill (trapiche), to express the juice of the sugar- 

 cane ; this is the occupation of the Indians, who 

 work without pay, as they do every where when 

 they are understood to work for the church. 

 The pasturages at the foot of the mountains that 

 surround Santa Barbara are not so rich as at 

 Esmeralda, but superior to those at San Fer- 

 nando de Atabapo. The grass is short and 

 thick, yet the upper stratum of earth furnishes 

 only a dry and parched granitic sand. The 

 savannahs, far from fertile, of the banks of the 

 Guaviare, the Meta, and the Upper Oroonoko, 

 are equally destitute of that mould, which 

 abounds in the surrounding forests, and of the 

 thick stratum of clay, that covers the sandstone 

 of the Llanos, or steppes, of Venezuela. The 

 small herbaceous mimosas contribute in this 

 zone to fatten the cattle, but are very rare be- 

 tween the Rio Jao and the mouth of the Gua- 

 viare. 



During the few hours of our stay at the mis- 

 sion of Santa Barbara, we obtained pretty ac- 

 curate ideas respecting the Rio Ventuari, which, 



