EXPEDITION OE SOLANO. 
335 
1756, under the order of Solano, awakened suspicion in 
this chief of the Gruaypunaves. He was on the point of 
a ttempting a contest with them, when the Jesuits made 
him sensible that it would be his interest to remain at 
Peace with the Christians. Whilst dining at the table of 
the Spanish general, Cuseru was allured by promises, and 
the prediction of the approaching fall of his enemies. From 
being a king he became the mayor of a village; and con- 
sented to settle with his people at the new mission of 
San Fernando de Atabapo. Such is most frequently the 
end of those chiefs whom travellers and missionaries style 
Indian princes. “ In my mission,” says the honest father 
Grill, “ I had five reyecillos, or petty kings, those of the 
I’amanacs, the Avarigotes, the Parecas, the Quaquas, and 
the Maypures. At church I placed them in file on the same 
bench ; but I took care to give the first place to Monaiti, 
king of the Tamanacs, because he had helped me to found 
the village ; and he seemed quite proud of this prece- 
dency. 
When Cuseru, the chief of the Gruaypunaves, saw the 
Spanish troops pass the cataracts, he advised Don Jose 
Solano to wait a whole year before he formed a settlement 
°n the Atabapo ; predicting the misfortunes which were not 
slow to arrive. “ Let me labour with my people in clearing 
the ground,” said Cuseru to the Jesuits; I will plant cassava, 
a nd you will find hereafter wherewith to feed all these 
nien.” Solano, impatient to advance, refused to listen to 
the counsel of the Indian chief, and the new inhabitants of San 
lernando had to suffer all the evils of scarcity. Canoes 
' Vpt 'e sent at a great expense to New Grenada, by the Meta 
^ n d the Vichada, in search of flour. The provision arrived 
°o late, and many Spaniards and Indians perished of those 
leases which are produced in every climate by want ana 
lll0: 'al dejection. 
■p ®»me traces of cultivation are still found at Sau Fernando 
«,very Indian has a small plantation, of cacao-trees, which 
Produce abundantly in the fifth year ; but they cease to bear 
lu it sooner than in the valleys of'Aragua. There are some 
j‘ lv annahs and good pasturage round San Fernando, but 
ardly seven or eight cows are to be found, the remains of a 
ronwidvi-oble herd which was brought into these countries at 
