760 



five leagues in length, and thirty in breadth. 

 Both of these monastic governments are 

 equally inaccessible to Whites, and form status 

 in statu. The first, that of the Observantins, I 

 have described from my own observations ; it 

 remains for me to record here the notions I 

 could procure respecting" the second of these 

 governments, that of the Catalonian Capuchins. 

 Fatal civil dissensions, and epidemic fevers, have 

 of late years diminished the long increasing pros- 

 perity of the missions of the Carony ; but, not- 

 withstanding these losses, the region which we 

 are going to examine is still highly interesting 

 with respect to political economy. 



The missions of the Catalonian Capuchins, 

 which in 1804 contained at least sixty thou- 

 sand head of cattle grazing in the savannahs, 

 extend from the eastern banks of the Carony 

 and the Paragua as far as the banks of the Ima- 

 taca, the Curumu, and the Cuyuni; at the 

 south-east they border on English Guyana, 

 or the colony of Essequebo ; and toward the 

 south, in going up the desert banks of the Para- 

 gua and the Paraguamasi, and crossing the 

 Cordillera of Pacaraimo, they touch the Por- 

 tugueze settlements on the Rio Branco. The 

 • whole of this country is open, full of fine savan- 

 nahs, and no way resembling that through 

 which we passed on the Upper Oroonoko. The 

 forests become impenetrable only on advancing 



