388 
CABIB SLAVE-DEABEItS. 
and the Bio Negro, when we recollect that so many of the 
rivers of America form, as it were, deltas at their con- 
fluence with other rivers. Thus the Bio Branco and the 
Bio Jupura enter by a great number of branches into the 
Bio Negro and the Amazon. At the confluence ot the 
Jupura there is a much more extraordinary phenomenon. 
Before this river joins the Amazon, the latter, which is the 
principal recipient, sends off three branches called Uaranapu, 
Manhama, and Avateparana, to the J upura, which is but a 
tributary stream. The Portuguese astronomer, Bibeiro, has 
proved this important fact. The Amazon gives waters to 
the Jupura itself, before it receives that tributary stream. 
The Bio Conorichite, or ltinivini, formerly facilitated the 
trade in slaves carried on by the Portuguese in the Spams > 
territory. The slave-traders went up by the Cassiquiare 
and the Cano Mee to Conorichite; and thence dragge' 1 
their canoes by a portage to the rochelas of Manuteso, m 
order to enter the Atahapo. This abominable trade lasted 
till about the year 1750; when the expedition of Solano, 
and the establishment of the missions on the banks of the 
Bio Negro, put an end to it. Old laws of Charles ' 
and Philip II1 # had forbidden under the most severe penal- 
ties (such as the being rendered incapable of civil emplpj* 
ment, and a fine of two thousand piastres), “the conversion 
of the natives to the faith by violent means, and sending 
armed men against them ;” biit notwithstanding these wise 
and humane laws, the Bio Negro, in the middle of the las 
century, was no further interesting in European, politics, 
than as it facilitated the entradas, or hostile incursions, am- 
favoured the purchase of slaves. The Caribs, a trading am 
warlike people, received from the Portuguese and the Bute 6 
knives, fish-hooks, small mirrors, and all sorts of 8. 
beads. They excited the Indian chiefs to make war again* 
each oilier, bought their prisoners, and carried off, them 
selves, by stratagem or force, all whom they found in the 11 
way. These incursions of the Caribs comprehended an m 1 ' 
inense extent of land; they went from the banks of tii 
Esscquibo and the Carony, by the Bupunuri and the m 
raguamuzi on one side, directly south towards the B 
Branco ; and on the other, to the south-west, following t 
* 26 Jan. 1523 : and 10 Oct. 1618. 
