764 



only venture to navigate amid these raudales, or 

 rapids of the Carony. Happily the river is often 

 divided into several branches ; and consequently 

 that can be chosen, which according to the 

 height of the waters presents the fewest whirl- 

 pools and shoals. The great Salto, celebrated 

 for the picturesque beauty of it's situation, is a 

 little above the village of Aguacaqua, or Carony ? 

 which in my time had a population of seven 

 hundred Indians. This cascade is said to be 

 from fifteen to twenty feet high ; but the bar 

 does not cross the whole bed of the river, which 

 is more than three hundred feet broad. When 

 the population is more extended toward the 

 east, it will avail itself of the course of the small 

 rivers Imataca and Aquire, the navigation of 

 which is pretty free from danger. The monks, 

 who like to keep themselves isolated, in order to 

 withdraw from the eye of the secular power, 

 have been hitherto unwilling to settle on the 

 banks of the Oroonoko. It is however by this 

 river only, or by the Cuyuni and the Essequebo, 

 that the missions of Carony can export their pro- 

 ductions. The latter way has not yet been tried, 

 though several Christian settlements* are formed 



* Guacipati, Tupuquen, Angel de la Custodia, and Cura^ 

 where the military post of the frontiers was stationed in 1800, 

 which had been anciently placed at the confluence of the 

 Cuyuni and the Curumu: 



