238 



her children, and sent to one of the missions of 

 the Upper Oroonoko. There she died, refusing 

 all kind of nourishment, as the savages do in 

 great calamities. 



Such is the remembrance annexed to this 

 fatal rock, to the Piedra de la Madre. In the 

 relation of my travels I feel no propensity to 

 pause at a picture of individual calamity, of 

 evils which are every where frequent, where 

 there are masters and slaves, civilized Euro- 

 peans living with people in a state of barba- 

 rism, and priests executing the plenitude of 

 arbitrary power on men ignorant and without 

 defence. Historian of the countries through 

 which I passed, I generally confine myself to 

 pointing out what is imperfect, or fatal to hu- 

 manity, in their civil or religious institutions. 

 If I have dwelt longer on the Rock of the Gua- 

 hiba, it was to display an affecting instance of 

 maternal tenderness in a race of people so long 

 calumniated ; and because I thought some be- 

 nefit might accrue from publishing a fact, which 

 I had from the monks of St. Francis, and which 

 proves how much the system of the missions calls 

 for the care of the legislator. 



Above the mouth of the Guasucavi we en- 

 tered the Rio Temi, the course of which is 

 from south to north. Had we continued to 

 ascend the Atabapo, we should have turned 

 toward the east-south-east, going farther from 



