SITUATION OF ESMEItAT.UA. 
437 
give q oantity of mosquitos. The site of the mission is highly 
picturesque ; the surrounding country is lovely, and of great 
fertility. I never saw plantains of so large a size as these : 
and indigo, sugar, and cacao might be produced in abun- 
dance, if any trouble were taken for their cultivation. The 
Cerro Duida is surrounded with fine pasturage ; and if the 
Observantins of the college of Piritu partook a little of the 
industry of the Catalonian Capuchins settled on the banks 
of the Carony, numerous herds would be seen wandering be- 
tween the Cunucunumo and the Padamo. At present, not 
a cow or a horse is to be found ; and the inhabitants, victims 
of their own indolence, are often reduced to eat the flesh of 
alouate monkeys, and flour made from the bones of fish, of 
which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. A little 
cassava and a few plantains only are cultivated ; and when 
the fishery is not abundant, the natives of a country so fa- 
voured by nature are exposed to the most cruel privations. 
The pilots of the small number of boats that go from the 
Rio Negro to Angostura by the Cassiquiare are afraid to 
ascend as far as Esmeralda, and therefore that mission would 
have been much better placed at the point of the bifurcation 
of the Orinoco. It is probable that this vast country will 
not always be doomed to the desertion in which it has 
hitherto been left, owing to the errors of monkish adminis- 
tration and the spirit of monopoly that characterises cor- 
porations. We may even predict on what points of the 
Orinoco industry and commerce will become most active. 
In every zone, population is concentred at the mouth of 
tributary streams. The Rio Apure, by which the pro- 
ductions of the provinces of Varinas and Merida are ex- 
ported, will give great importance to the little town of 
Cabruta, which will then be in rivalsliip with San Fernando 
de Apure, where all commerce has hitherto centred. Higher 
up, a new settlement will be formed at the confluence of 
the Meta, which communicates with New Grenada by the 
Llanos of Casanare. The two missions of the Cataracts will 
increase, from the activity to which the transport of boats 
at those points will give rise ; for an unhealthy and 
damp climate, ' and the swarming of mosquitos, . will as 
little impede the progress of cultivation at the Orinoco as 
at the Rio Magdalena, whenever a powerful mercantile 
