765 



on one of the principal tributary streams of the 

 Cuyuni, the Rio Juruario*. This stream fur- 

 nishes at the period of the great swellings the 

 remarkable phenomenon of a bifurcation. It 

 communicates by the Juraricuima and the Au- 

 rapa with the Rio Carony-f- ; so that the land 

 comprised between the Oroonoko, the sea, the 

 Cuyuni, and the Carony, becomes a real island. 

 Formidable rapids impede the navigation of the 

 Upper Cuyuni ; and hence of late an attempt 

 has been made, to open a road to the colony of 

 Essequebo much more to the south-east, in order 

 to fall in with the Cuyuni much below the mouth 

 of the Curumu. 



The whole of this southern territory is tra- 

 versed by hordes of independant Caribbees ; the 

 feeble remains of that warlike people, who were 

 so formidable to the missionaries till 1733 and 

 1735, at which period the respectable bishop 

 Gervais de LabridJ, canon of the metropolitan 

 chapter of Lyon, father Lopez, and several other 

 . ecclesiastics, perished by the hands of the Carib- 

 bees. These dangers, too frequent formerly, 



* Rio Yuarnare of the English map which I have just 

 quoted. 



+ Caulin, p. 57 and 61. 

 £ Consecrated a bishop for the four parts of the world 

 (obispo para las quatro partes del mundo) by pope Benedict the 

 13th. 



