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bles ; they even planted sweet oranges and ta - 

 marinds round the villages ; and they possessed 

 twenty or thirty thousand head of cows and 

 horses, in the savannahs of Atures and Cari- 

 chana. They had at their service a great num- 

 ber of slaves and servants (peones), to take 

 care of their herds. Nothing is now cultivated 

 but a little cassava, and a few plantains. The 

 fertility of the soil however is such, that at 

 Atures I counted on a single branch of musa 

 108 fruits, 4 or 5 of which would almost suffice 

 for the daily nourishment of a man. The culture 

 of maize is entirely neglected, and the horses 

 and cows have disappeared. Near the raudal, 

 a part of the village still bears the name of Passo 

 delganado (ford of the cattle), while the descen- 

 dants of those very Indians, whom the Jesuits 

 had assembled in a mission, speak of horned 

 cattle as of animals of a race that is lost. In 

 going up the Oroonoko, toward San Carlos del 

 Rio Negro, we saw the last cow at Carichana. 

 The fathers of the Observance, who now govern 

 these vast countries, did not immediately suc- 

 ceed the Jesuits. During an interregnum of 

 eighteen years, the missions were visited only 

 from time to time, and by Capuchin monks. 

 The agents of the secular government, under 

 the title of Commissioners of the King, managed 

 the hatos or farms of the Jesuits with culpable 

 negligence. They killed the cattle in order to 



