477 



every morning in the open air, to procure the 

 oil necessary for the lamp of the Church, and 

 especially to govern this republica de Indios y 

 Castellanos, in which eveiy one wished to profit 

 singly by what God had granted to all." 



We made the tour of the island, accompanied 

 by the missionary, and by a pulpero, who boasted 

 of having visited ten years successively the camp 

 of the Indians, and the pesca de tortugas. This 

 part of the banks of the Oroonoko is frequented 

 here, as the fairs of Frankfort and Beaucaire 

 are with us. We were on a plain of sand per- 

 fectly smooth ; and were told, that, as far as we 

 could see along the beach, turtles' eggs were 

 concealed under a layer of earth. The mission- 

 ary carried a long pole in his hand. He showed 

 us, that, by means of this pole (vara) the extent 

 of the stratum of eggs could be determined, as 

 the miner determines the limits of a bed of marl, 

 of bog iron-ore, or of coal. On thrusting the 

 vara perpendicularly into the ground, you feel 

 by the sudden want of resistance, that you have 

 penetrated into the cavity, or layer of loose 

 earth, containing the eggs. We saw, that 

 the stratum is generally spread with so much 

 uniformity, that the pole finds it every where in 

 a radius of ten toises around any given mark. 

 Here they talk continually of square perches of 

 eggs; it is like a mine country, that is divided 

 into lots,, and worked with the greatest regu- 



