405 



Esmeralda to the Erevato. Military posts, 

 which had no influence on the civilization of 

 the natives, figured on the maps, and in the 

 works of the missionaries, as villages (pueblos) 

 and reducciones apostolicas*. The preponde- 

 rance of the military was maintained on the 

 banks of the Oroonoko till 1785, when the sys- 

 tem of the monks of Saint Francis began. The 

 small number of missions founded, or rather 

 reestablished, since that period, are owing to the 

 fathers of the Observance ; for the soldiers now 

 distributed among the missions are dependant 

 on the missionaries, or at least are reputed to be 

 so, according* to the pretensions of the ecclesias- 

 tical hierarchy. 



The Indians whom we found at San Francisco 

 Solano were of two nations ; Pacimonales, and 

 Cheruvichahenas. The latter being descended 

 from a considerable tribe settled on the Rio 

 Tomo, near the Manivas of the Upper Guainia, 

 I tried to gather from them some ideas of the 

 upper course and the sources of the Rio Negro ; 

 but the interpreter, whom I employed, could not 

 make them comprehend the sense of my ques- 

 tions. They only repeated to satiety, that the 

 sources of the Rio Negro and the Inirida were 

 as near to each other, as " two fingers of the 



* See the Corografia del Padre Caulin, p. 77; and the Map 



of the Missions of the Oroonoko, by Surville, 1778. 



