USE OF AXT3 AS FOOD. 
389 
portages between the Eio Paragua, the Caura, and the 
Ventuario. The Caribs, when they arrived amid the nu- 
merous tribes of the Upper Orinoco, divided themselves into 
several bands, in order to reach, by the Cassiquiarc, the 
Cababury, the Itinivini, and the Atabapo, on a great many 
points at once, the banks of the Guiaima or Eio Negro, and 
carry on the slave-trade with the Portuguese. J ims the 
Unhappy natives, before they came into immediate contact 
with the Europeans, suffered from their proximity. The 
same causes produce everywhere the same effects. The bar- 
barous trade which civilized nations have carried on, and 
still partially continue, on the coast of Africa, extends its 
fatal influence even to regions where the existence of whito 
men is unknown. 
Having quitted the mouth of the Conoricliite and the 
mission of Uavipe, w'e reached at sunset tho island ol Dapa, 
lying in the middle of the river, and very picturesquely 
situated. We were astouished to find on this spot some 
cultivated ground, and on the top ol a small hill an Indian 
hut. Pour natives were seated round a lire ol brushwood, 
and they were eating a sort of white paste with black spots, 
W’hich much excited our curiosity. These black spots 
proved to be vachacos , large ants, the hinder parts ol which 
resemble a lump of grease. They had been dried, and 
blackened by smoke. We saw several bags ol them sus- 
pended above the fire. These good people paid but little 
attention to us ; yet there were more than fourteen persons 
in this confined hut, lying naked in hammocks hung one 
above another. When Father Zea arrived, he was received 
with groat demonstrations of joy. The military are in 
greater numbers on the hanks of the Eio Negro than on 
those of the Orinoco, owing to the necessity of guarding 
the frontiers; and wherever soldiers and monks dispute 
for power over the Indians, the latter are most attached to 
the monks. Two young women came down from their 
hammocks, to prepare for us cakes of cassava. In answer 
to some enquiries which we put to them through an inter- 
preter, they answered that cassava grew poorly on the 
island, hut that it was a good land for ants, and food was 
Hot wanting. Tn fact, these vachacos lurmsh subsistence 
to the Indians of the Eio Negro and the Guainia. They 
