PORTUGUESE SLAVE-TEAnEES. 
427 
ransomers,* favoured this inhuman commerce. After having 
excited the natives to make war, they ransomed the pri- 
soners ; and, to give an appearance of equity to the traffic, 
monks accompanied the troop of ransomers to examine 
“ whether those who sold the slaves had a right to do so, by 
having made them prisoners in open war.” Prom the year 
1737 these visits of the Portuguese to the Upper Orinoco 
became very frequent. The desire of exchanging slaves 
(poitos) for hatchets, fish-hooks, and glass trinkets, induced 
the Indian tribes to make war upon one another. The 
Guipunaves, led on by their valiant and cruel chief Macapu, 
descended from the banks of the Inirida towards the con- 
fluence of the Atabapo and the Orinoco. “They sold,” 
says the missionary Gili, “ the slaves whom they did not 
eat.”+ Tho Jesuits of the Lower Orinoco became uneasy 
at this state of things, and the superior of the Spanish 
missions, Father Roman, the intimate friend of Gumilla, 
took the courageous resolution of crossing the Great 
Cataracts, and visiting the Guipunaves, without being 
escorted by Spanish soldiers. He left Carichana the 4th of 
February, 1744; and having arrived at the confluence of 
the Guaviare, the Atabapo, and the Orinoco, where the last 
mentioned river suddenly changes its previous course from 
east to west, to a direction from south to north, he saw from 
afar a canoe as large as his own, and filled with men in 
European dresses. He caused a crucifix to be placed at the 
bow of his boat in sign of peace, according to the custom of 
the missionaries when they navigate in a country unknown 
to them. The wliites, who were Portuguese slave-traders, 
of the Rio Negro, recognized with marks of joy the habit 
of the order of St. Ignatius. They heard with astonishment 
that the river on which this meeting took place was the 
Orinoco ; and they brought Father Roman, by tho Cassi- 
quiare to the Brazilian settlements on the Rio Negro. The 
* Tropa de rescate ; from rescatar, to redeem. 
+ “ 1 Guipunavi avventizj abitatori dell' Alto Orinoco, recavan de’ 
danni incredibili alle vicine mansuete nazioni ; altre mangiondone, altre 
Conducendone schiave ne’ Portoghesi dominj.” — “The Guipunaves, at 
their first arrival on the Upper Orinoco, inflicted incredible injuries on the 
other peaceable tribes who dwelt near them, devouring some, and selling 
others as slaves to the Portuguese.” (Gili, tom. i, p. 31.) 
