478 
BOUTES OF THE SLAVE TBABEBB. 
the house before he could save these productions of the 
industry of the Curacicanas. The neophytes of Santa Bar- 
bara, who think themselves very superior to these supposed 
savages, appeared to me far less industrious. The Bio Ma- 
nipiare, one of the principal branches of the Yentuari, ap- 
proaches near its source those lofty mountains, the northern 
ridge of which gives birth to the Cuchivero. It is a pro- 
longation of the chain of Baraguan ; and there Father Grili 
places the table-land of Siamaeu, of which he vaunts the 
temperate climate. The upper course of the Bio Yentuari, 
beyond the confluence of the Asisi, and the Great Baudales, 
is almost unknown. I was informed only, that the Upper 
Yentuari bends so much towards the east that the ancient 
road from Esmeralda to the Bio Caura crosses the bed of 
the river. The proximity of the tributary streams of the 
Carony, the Caura, and the Ventuari, has facilitated for ages 
the access of the Caribs to the banks of the Upper Orinoco. 
Bands of this warlike and trading people went up from the 
Bio Carony, by the Paragua., to the sources of the Paruspa. 
A portage conducted them to the Chavarro, an eastern tri- 
butary stream of the Bio Caura ; they descended with their 
canoes first this stream, and then the Caura itself, as far as 
the mouth of the Erevato. After having gone up this last 
river south-west, and traversed vast savannahs for three 
days, they entered by the Manipiare into the great Bio 
Yentuari. I trace this road with precision, not only be- 
cause it was that by which the traffic of native slaves was 
carried on, but also to call the attention of those, who at 
some future day may rule the destiny of Guiana, to the 
high importance of this labyrinth of rivers. 
It is by the four largest tributary streams, which the 
majestic river of the Orinoco receives on the right, (the 
Carony, the Caura, the Padamo, and the Yentuari,) that 
European civilization will one day penetrate into this re- 
gion of forests and mountains, which has a surface of ten 
thousand six hundred square leagues, and which is bounded 
by the Orinoco on the north, the west, and the south. The 
Capuchins of Catalonia and the Observantins of Andalusia 
and Yalcncia, have already made settlements in the vallies 
of the Carony and the Caura. The tributary streams of the 
Lower Orinoco, being the nearest to the coast and to the 
