205 



vato and the Ventuari, the Conorichite and the 

 Atacavi. None knew better than they the inter- 

 minglings of the rivers, the proximity of the 

 tributary streams, and the ways by which the 

 distances to be passed might be diminished. 

 The Caribbees had vanquished and almost ex- 

 terminated the Cabres. Masters of the Lower 

 Oroonoko, they met with resistance from the 

 Guaypunabis, who had founded their dominion 

 on the Upper Oroonoko ; and who, together with 

 the Cabres, the Manitivitanoes, and the Parenis, 

 are the greatest cannibals of these countries. 

 They inhabited originally the banks of the great 

 river Inirida at it's confluence with the Chamo- 

 chiquini, and the hilly country of Mabicore. 

 About the year 1744, their chief, or, as the 

 natives say, their apoto (king), was called Ma- 

 capu. He was a man no less distinguished by 

 his intelligence than his valour ; had led a part 

 of the nation to the banks of the Atabapo ; and, 



streams of the Lower Oroonoko. There is also an ancient 

 portage of the Caribbees between the Paruspa and the Rio 

 Chavaro, which flows into the Rio Caura above the mouth 

 of the Ere vato. In going up the Ere vato you reach the 

 savannahs, that are traversed by the Rio Manipiare above the 

 tributary streams of the Ventuari. The Caribbees in their 

 distant excursions sometimes passed from the Rio Caura to 

 the Ventuari, thence to the Padamo, and then by the Upper 

 Oroonoko to the Atacavi, which westward of Manuteso 

 takes the name of the Atabapo. 



