152 
TABUEO INDIANS. 
the Orinoco, after having formed a junction below San Fer- 
nando by the first bifurcation of the Apure. The Isla del 
Apurito is twenty-two leagues in length, and two or three 
leagues in breadth. It is divided by the Cano de la Tigrera 
and the Cano del Manati into three parts, the two extremes 
of which bear the names of Isla de Blanco and Isla de los 
Garzitas. The right bank of the Apure, below the Apurito, 
is somewhat better cultivated than the left bank, where the 
Yaruros, or Japuin Indians, have constructed a few huts 
with reeds and stalks of palm-leaves. These people, who 
live by hunting and fishing, are very skilful in killing 
jaguars. It is they who principally carry the skins, known 
in Europe by the name of tiger-skins, to the Spanish vil- 
lages. Some of these Indians have been baptized, but they 
never visit the Christian churches. They are considered as 
savages because they choose to remain independent. Other 
tribes of Yaruros live under the rule of the missionaries, in 
the village of Achaguas, situated south of the Eio Payara. 
The individuals of this nation, whom I had an opportunity 
of seeing at the Orinoco, have a stem expression of counte- 
nance ; and some features in their physiognomy, erroneously 
called Tartarian, belong to branches of the Mongol race, 
the eye very long, the cheekbones high, but the nose pro- 
minent throughout its whole length. They are taller, 
browner, and less thick-set than the Chayrna Indians. The 
missionaries praise the intellectual character ot the Yaruros, 
who were formerly a powerful and numerous nation on the 
banks of the Orinoco, 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 Eio Negro, and thence to the town of 
Angostura, I noted down day by day, either in the boat or 
where we disembarked at night, all that appeared to me 
worthy of observation. Violent rains, and the prodigious 
quantity of mosquitos with which the air is filled on the 
bauks of the Orinoco and the Cassiquiare, necessarily occa- 
sioned some interruptions ; hut I supplied the omission hv 
notes taken a few days after. I here subjoin some extracts 
from my journal. Whatever is written while the objects we 
