XI 
SAN CARLOS 
355 
A more likely route for us is by the Siapa, the longest tributary 
of the Casiquiari, called in its upper part the Rio Castanha, and 
certainly having its sources in the above-named cerro. The only 
objection to it is that several steep rapids have to be passed ; but 
these may be avoided by making a circuit through the upper 
mouth of the Casiquiari and going up the Manaca, from which 
there is a short passage by land to the Castanha. 
We have discussed these and other routes principally with the 
view of avoiding the hostile Guaharibos, the more especially as it 
is believed that these Indians do not extend to the actual sources 
of the Orinoco, but that tribes inhabit there with whom friendly 
communication has been held by the Castanha and Padauiri. 
On the whole, I think we incline to first risk a battle with the 
Guaharibos, and I have little doubt that with fifty men well armed 
we should be able to force our way. 
Shortly after the separation of Venezuela from the mother 
country, and whilst there was still an armed police in the Canton 
del Rio Negro — there is none of any kind now — the Com- 
mandant of San Fernando was sent with a considerable body of 
armed men to endeavour to open amicable relations with the 
Guaharibos. He reached the Raudal de los Guaharibos with his 
little fleet of fifteen piragoas, and as the river was full, the whole 
of them might have passed the raudal, but it was not considered 
necessary, and his own piragoa alone was dragged up, the rest 
being left below to await their return. A very little way above they 
encountered a large encampment of Guaharibos, by whom they 
were received amicably, in return for which they rose on the 
Indians by night, killed as many of the men as they could, and 
carried off the children. One of these captives is still living near 
the upper mouth of the Casiquiari, where I hope to see and con- 
verse with him. Treatment such as this of course is calculated 
to confirm, and perhaps it was the original cause, of the hostility 
of these Indians to the whites. The same sort of thing seems to 
have been practised anciently near the head-waters of all these 
rivers. On the Rio Negro, where the Portuguese had formerly 
large fazendas reaes (royal farms), in which were cultivated 
great quantities of coffee, indigo, etc., it was the custom to recruit 
from time to time the hands required for working them by send- 
ing armed men up the various rivers debouching into the Rio 
Negro and Japura to make pegas (raids) among the indigenous 
inhabitants. The fazendas reaes have disappeared, and the 
Brazilian Government has promulgated edicts against the seizing 
of the native inhabitants and reducing them to slavery, yet the 
practice still exists and is carried out. I speak of this with 
certainty, because since I came up the Rio Negro two such 
expeditions have been sent up a tributary of the Uaupes, called 
the Rio Paapun's, to make pegas among the Carapana 
