DESTRUCTION OF TRE JESUIT MISSIONS. 
207 
Caricliana. They had at their service a great number of 
slaves and servants (peones), to tend their herds. Nothing 
is now cultivated but a little cassava, and a few plantains. 
Such however is the fertility of the soil, that at Atures 1 
counted on a single branch of a musa one hundred and eight 
fruits, four or five of which would almost have sufficed for a 
man’s daily food. The culture of maize is entirely neglected, 
and the horses and cows have entirely disappeared. Near 
the raudal, a part of the village still bears the name of Passo 
del ganado (ford of the cattle), while the descendants of 
those very Indians whom the Jesuits had assembled in a 
mission, speak of homed cattle as of animals of a race now 
lost. In going up the Orinoco, toward San Carlos del Bio 
fr egro, we saw the last cow at Caricbana. The Fathers of 
the Observance, who now govern these vast countries, did 
11 ot immediately succeed the Jesuits. During an inter- 
regnum of eighteen years, the missions were visited only 
from time to time, and by Capuchin monks. The agents of 
the secular government, under the title of Boyal Commis- 
B iouers, managed the hatos or farms of the Jesuits with 
oolpable negligence. They killed the cattle for the sake 
selling the hides. Many heifers were devoured by the 
frguars, and a great number perished in consequence of 
bounds made by the bats of the raudales, which, though 
jailer, are far bolder than the bats of the Llanos. At the 
tone of the expedition of the boundaries, horses from Enca- 
^iiiada, Carichana, and Atures, were conveyed as far as San 
'frse de Maravitanos, where, on the banks of the Eio Negro, 
the Portuguese could only procure them, after a long passage, 
of a very inferior quality, by the rivers Amazou and 
friand Para. Since the year 1795, the cattle of the Jesuits 
jjve entirely disappeared. There now remain as monuments 
. 1 the ancient cultivation of these countries, and the active 
Omustry of the first missionaries, only a few trunks of the 
range and tamarind, in the savannahs, surrounded by wild 
trees. 
The tigers, or jaguars, which are less dangerous for the 
, ttle than the bats, come into the village at Atures, and 
r 6 , v °ur the swine of the poor Indians. The missionary 
^ ei .ated to us a striking instance of the familiarity of these 
uiUsla, usually so ferocious. Some months before oui 
