680 



nies augmented rapidly in population and pros- 

 perity. Sculptured figures of the Sun and Moon, 

 such as I have already mentioned, are found 

 near Caycara, at the Cerro del Tirano *. It is 

 " the ivork of the old people" (that is of our 

 fathers), say the natives. On a rock more 

 distant from the shore, and called Tecoma, the 

 symbolic figures are found, it is said, at the 

 height of a hundred feet. The Indians knew 

 heretofore a road, that led by land from Caycara 

 to Demerary and Essequebo. Did the tribes, 

 that sculptured the figures-^ described by the 

 traveller Hortsmann, come by this same road to 

 the lake Amucu ? 



On the northern bank of the Oroonoko, oppo- 

 site Caycara, is the mission of Cabruta, founded 

 by the jesuit Rotella, in 1740, as an advanced 

 post against the Caribbees. An Indian village, 



* The tyrant who gave this name to these mountains is not 

 Lope de Aguirre, but probably, as the name of the neigh- 

 bouring cove seems to prove,, the celebrated conquistador An- 

 tonio Sedeno j who, after the expedition of Herera, sought to 

 penetrate by the Oroonoko to the Rio Meta. He was in a 

 state of rebellion against the audiencia of Saint Domingo. I 

 am ignorant J^'ever how Sedeno came to Caycara - } for his- 

 torians relate, that he was poisoned on the banks of the Rio 

 Tisnado, one of the tributary streams of the Portuguesa. 

 (Frey Pedro Simo?i, Not. 4, cap. 21, No. 3, p, 30. CauUn x 

 p. 158.) 



f See above, p. 593. 



