XI 
SAN CARLOS 
349 
previous to the feast of San Juan (June 24) there 
were obscure rumours that a general massacre of 
the whites had been planned for that occasion, and 
as the Portuguese passed along the streets the 
Indians called out from their houses that the Feast 
of St. John was coming, when old scores would be 
paid off. Some said that they had submitted long 
enough to the whites, and that on the Orinoco it 
was quite a common thing to kill a white man and 
throw his body into the river, and there was no 
more heard of it. A fortnight before the festival 
the Comisario took himself off, as it now appears, 
to be out of the way should any novidade occur, 
leaving another white to supply his place ; but 
this man also disappeared before daylight on the 
morning of the 23rd. I should mention too that 
the Comisario before he left displaced a respect- 
able Indian who had held the office of captain for 
many years, and appointed in his stead one of the 
most drunken and ruffianly Indians in the place. 
Early in the morning of the 23rd a number of 
women arrived in the port from their cuniicos 
(mandiocca fields), bringing with them great quan- 
tities of bureche (rum), which they had been em- 
ployed some weeks in distilling. The proceedings 
of the feast were forthwith commenced by the 
firing of muskets and blowing of carizos (musical 
instruments made of bamboos and used in a 
peculiar dance which also bears the same name, 
. carizo), and the demijohns of bureche were 
broached. Shortly after daylight the two Portu- 
guese came to talk to me of the posture of affairs, 
and to tell me that we were deserted not only by 
the Comisario but by his Suplente. The house- 
