580 



Their progress would become rapid, if (after the 

 example of the Jesuits) extraordinary succours 

 were assigned to the most distant missions ; and 

 if the most courageous and intelligent ecclesias- 

 tics, and those best versed in the Indian lan- 

 guages, were placed in the most advanced posts, 

 at Guirior, San Luis del Erevato, and Esmeral- 

 da *. The little that remains to be discovered 

 of the Oroonoko (probably a space of twenty- 

 five or thirty leagues) would then be soon ex- 

 plored ; for in both Americas the missionaries 

 arrive every where first, because they find faci- 

 lities, which are wanting to every other traveller. 

 " You boast of your journeys beyond Lake Su- 

 perior, 5 ' said an Indian of Canada to some far 

 traders of the United States; "you forget then, 

 that the black coats passed it long before you ; 

 and that it was they who showed you the way 

 to the west." 



Our canoe was not ready to receive us till 

 near three o'clock in the afternoon. It had 

 been filled with an innumerable quantity of ants 

 during the navigation of the Cassiquiare; and 

 the toldo, or roof of palm-leaves, beneath which we 

 had again to remain stretched out during twenty- 

 two days, was freed with difficulty from these 



* These three points are on the confines of the missions 

 of the Rio Carony, the Rio Caura, and the Upper Oroo- 

 noko. 



