506 



guages most generally spoken. We were sur- 

 prized to find at Esmeralda many zamboes, mu- 

 lattoes, and copper-coloured people, who call 

 themselves Espannoles, and fancy they are white, 

 because they are not so red as the Indians. 

 These people live in the most absolute want ; 

 they have for the most part been sent hither in 

 banishment ( desterrados) . Solano, in his haste 

 to found colonies in the interior of the country, 

 in order to guard it's entrance against the Por- 

 tugueze, assembled in the Llanos, and as far as 

 the island of Margaretta, vagabonds and malefac- 

 tors, whom justice had vainly pursued, and made 

 them go up the Oroonoko to join the unhappy 

 Indians, who had been carried off from the 

 woods. A mineralogical error gave celebrity to 

 Esmeralda. The granites of Duida and Mara- 

 guaca contain in open veins fine rock crys- 

 tals, some of them of great transparency, others 

 coloured by chlorit, or blended with actinote ; 

 and they were taken for diamonds and emeralds. 



So near the sources of the Oroonoko, we 

 heard of nothing in these mountains but the 

 proximity of El Dorado, the lake Parima, and 

 the ruins of the great city of Manoa. A man, 

 still known in the country for his credulity and 

 his love of exaggeration, don Apollinario Diez 

 de la Fuente, assumed the pompous title of w- 

 pitan poblador> and cabo militar of the fort of 

 Cassiquiare. This fort consisted of a few trunks 



