466 
INSURRECTION OE THE INDIANS. 
by tbe name of Parima.* Here, as in several other coun- 
tries of Spanish America, the savages have reconquered 
what had been wrested from them by civilization, or rather 
by its precursors, the missionaries. The expedition of the 
boundaries under Solano, and the extravagant zeal displayed 
by a governor of Guiana for the discovery of El Dorado, 
partially revived in the latter half of the eighteenth century 
that spirit of enterprise which characterised the Spaniards 
at the period of the discovery of America. In going along 
the Bio Padamo, a road was observed across the forests 
and savannahs (the length of ten days’ journey), from 
Esmeralda to the sources ef the Yentuari ; and. in two 
days more, from those sources, by the Erevato, the mis- 
sions on the Bio Caura were reached. Two intelligent 
and enterprising men, Don Antonio Santos and Captain 
Bareto, had established, with the aid of the Miquiritares, 
a chain of military posts on this line from Esmeralda to 
the Bio Erevato. These posts consisted of block-houses 
(casas fuertes), mounted with swivels, such as I have already 
mentioned. The soldiers, left to themselves, exercised all 
kinds of vexations on the natives ( Indians of peace), who 
had cultivated pieces of ground around the casas fuertes ; 
and the consequence was that, in 1776, several tribes formed 
a league against the Spaniards. All the military posts were 
attacked on the same night, on a line of nearly fifty leagues 
in length. The houses were burnt, and many soldiers 
massacred; a very small number only owing their preser- 
vation to the pity of the Indian women. This nocturnal 
expedition is still mentioned with horror. It was concerted 
in the most profound secresy, and executed with that spirit 
oi unity which the natives of America, skilled in con- 
cealing their hostile passions, well know how to practise 
in whatever concerns their common interests. Since 1776 
no attempt has been made to re-establish the road which 
leads by land from the Dpper to the Lower Orinoco, and 
no white man has been able to pass from Esmeralda to the 
* The name Parima, which signifies water, great water, is applied 
sometimes, and more especially, to the laud washed hv the Rio Parima, 
or Rio Branco 'Rio de Aguas Blancas), a stream running into the Rio 
Negro ; sometimes to the mountains (Sierra Parima), which divide tl»J 
Upper and Lower Orinoco. 
