470 
MATERNAL AFFECTION. 
teeth, in breaking’ them entirely; disappeared during the night; and 
at the fourth rising sun was seen at the mission of vSan Fernando, ho- 
vering around the hut where her children were confined. “What 
that woman performed,” added the missionary who gave us this sad 
narrative, “ the most robust Indian would not have ventured to under- 
take. She traversed the woods at a season when the sky is constantly 
filled with clouds, and the sun during whole days appeared but for 
a few minutes. Did the course of the waters direct her way? The 
inundations of the rivers forced her to go far from the banks of the 
main stream, through the midst of woods, where the movement of the 
waters is almost imperceptible. How often must she have been stop- 
ped by the thorny lianas, that form a network round the tiunks 
they entwine ! How often must she have swum across the rivulets 
that run into the Atabapo ! This unfortunate woman was asked how 
she had sustained herself during four days ; she said that, exhausted 
with fatigue, she could find no other nourishment than those great 
black ants called vachacos, which climb the trees in long bands, to 
suspend on them their resinous nests.” We pressed the missionary 
to tell us whether the Guahiba had peacefully enjoyed the happiness 
of remaining with her children ; and if any repentance had followed 
the excess of cruelty. He would not satisfy our curiosity ; but at 
our return from the Rio Negro, we learnt that the Indian mother was 
not allowed time to cure her wounds, but was again separated from 
her children, and sent to one of the missions of the Upper Oroonoko, 
There she died, refusing all kind of nourishment, as the savages do in 
great calamities. 
Harleian Collection. 
This is a most valuable collection of curious manuscripts, begun 
near the end of the I7th century, by R. Harley Esq. of Brampton Bryan, 
afterwards earl of Oxford, and conducted upon the plan of the great 
Sir Robert Cotton. In August, 1705, he published his first considera- 
ble collection, and in less than ten years he got together nearly two 
thousand five hundred rare and curious manuscripts. Soon after this, 
the celebrated Dr. George Hicks, Mr. Anstis, garter king at arms, 
bishop Nicolson, and many other eminent antiquaries, not only offered 
him their assistance in procuring mantiscripts, but presented him 
with several that were very valuable. Beitig encouraged to perse- 
verance by his success, he kept many persons employed in purchasing 
manuscripts for him abroad, giving them written instructions for 
their conduct. Thus the manuscript library was, in 1721, increased 
to near six thousand books, fourteen thousand original charters, and 
five hundred rolls. His son Edvvard, earl of Oxford, still farther en- 
larged the collection ; so that when he died, June 16, 1741, it con- 
sisted of eight thousand volumes, several of them containing distinct 
and independent treatises, besides many loose papers, which have 
since been sorted, and bound up in volumes ; and above forty thou- 
sand original rolls, charters, letters patent, grants, and other deeds 
and instruments of great antiquity. The princi})al design of making 
this collection was the establishment of a manuscript English historical 
