418 



the Christian churches. They are considered as 

 savages, because they choose to remain indepen- 

 dant. Other tribes of Yaruroes live under the 

 rule of the missionaries, in the village of Acha- 

 guas, situate to the South of the Rio Payara. 

 The individuals of this nation, whom I had an 

 opportunity of seeing at the Oroonoko, have 

 some features in their physiognomy that are er- 

 roneously called Tatarian, and which belong to 

 branches of the Mongul race. Their look is 

 stern, the eye very long, high cheekbones, but 

 the nose prominent throughout it's whole length. 

 They are taller, browner, and less thick-set than 

 the Chayma Indians. The missionaries praise 

 the intellectual character of the Yaruroes, who 

 were formerly a powerful and numerous nation 

 on the banks of the Oroonoko, especially in the 

 environs of Cuycara, below the mouth of the 

 Guarico. We passed the night at Diamante, a 

 small sugar plantation formed opposite the island 

 of the same name. 



During the whole of my voyage from San 

 Fernando to San Carlos del Rio Negro, and 

 thence to the town of Angostura, I confined my- 

 self to writing day by day, either in the boat, or 

 where we disembarked at night, what appeared 

 to me worthy of observation . Violent rains, and 

 the prodigious quantity of moschettoes with 

 which the air is filled on the banks of the Oroo- 

 noko and the Cassiquiare, necessarily occasioned 



