10 



harbour* ; and we followed, not without diffi- 

 culty^ in a dark night, the narrow path, that 

 leads to the mission of Atures, a league distant 

 from the river. We crossed a plain covered 

 with large blocks of granite. 



The little village of San Juan Nepomuceno cle 

 los Atures was founded by the Jesuit Francisco 

 Gonzalez-f- in 1748. In going up the river 

 this is the last of the Christian establishments, 

 that owe their origin to the order of St Ignatius- 

 The more southern establishments, those of 

 Atabapo, of Cassiquiare, and of Rio Negro, were 

 formed by the fathers of the Observance of St. 

 Francis. The Oroonoko appears to have flowed 

 heretofore where the village of Atures now 

 stands, and the flat savannah, that surrounds 

 the village, no doubt made part of the bed of 

 the river. I saw to the east of the mission a 

 succession of rocks, that seemed to have formed 

 the ancient shore of the Oroonoko. In the lapse 

 of ages the river has been impelled toward the 

 west, in consequence of the accumulation of 

 earth, which occurs more frequently on the side 

 of the eastern mountains, that are furrowed by 

 torrents. The cataract bears the name of Ma- 



* Puerto de Ahaxo. 

 + And not by Father Olmos, as Caulin asserts in his 

 Chorographie. Father Olmos was at Atures at the time of 

 the expedition of the boundaries, and rendered it essential ser- 

 vices. 



