BAN FERNANDA HE APURE. 
137 
horning we pursued our way over low grounds, often in- 
undated. In the season of rains, a boat may be navigated, 
as on a lake, between the Guarico and the Apure. We 
drived on the 27th of March at the Villa de San Eer- 
nando, the capital of the Mission of the Capuchins in the 
province of Yariuas. This was the termination of our 
journey over the Llanos ; for we passed the three months 
April, May, and J une on the rivers. 
Chapter XVIII. 
^an Fernando de Apure. — 1 ntertwinings and Bifurcations of the Rivers 
Apure and Arauca. — Navigation on the Rio Apure. 
Till the second half of the eighteenth century the names 
k the great rivers Apure, Arauca, and Meta were scarcely 
Known in Europe : certainly less than they had been in the 
wo preceding centuries, when the valiant Eelipe de Urre 
atl d the conquerors of Tocuyo traversed the Llanos, to seek, 
e y°nd the Apure, the great legendary city of El Dorado, 
t[Qd the rich country of the Omeguas, the Timbuctoo of the 
. e ' v Continent. Such daring expeditions could not be car- 
ll ®d out without all the apparatus of war; and the weapons, 
Much had been destined for the defence of the now colo- 
rus J a j were employed without intermission against the 
unhappy na tives. When more peaceful times succeeded 
° those of -violence and public calamity, two powerful 
^Rlian tribes, the Cabres and the Caribs of the Orinoco, 
ade themselves masters of the country which the Con- 
H istadoree had ceased to ravage. Xone but poor monks 
g erc then permitted to advance to the south of the steppes. 
t ' le Uritucn an unknown world opened to the 
Pamsh colonists; and the descendants of those intrepid 
, i l ' ri °rs w ho had extended their conquests from Peru to 
j, e c °asts of New Grenada and the mouth of the Amazon, 
Tf 0 "' | Uoli the roads that lead from Coro to the Eio Meta. 
l ° re °t Venezuela remained a separate country ; and 
jy s 0w conquests of the Jesuit missionaries were success- 
0n1 -y by skirting tlie banks of the Orinoco. These 
