516 
TALLEY OF CAURA. 
hundred and fifty souls. San Luis de G-uaraguaraico is a 
colony of negroes, some freed and others fugitives from 
Essequibo. This colony merits the particular attention of 
the Spanish Government, for it can never be sufficiently 
recommended to endeavour to attach the slaves to the soil, 
and suffer them to enjoy as farmers the fruits of their agri- 
cultural labours. The land on the Caura, for the most part 
a virgin soil, is extremely fertile. There are pasturages for 
inore° than 15,000 beasts; but the poor inhabitants have 
neither horses nor horned cattle, hi ore than five-sixths 
of the banks of the Caura are either desert, or occupied by 
independent and savage tribes. The bed of the river is 
twice choked up by rocks: these obstructions occasion 
the famous Baudales of Mura and of Para or Paru, the 
latter of which has a portage, because it cannot be passed 
by canoes. At the time of the expedition of the boun- 
daries, a small fort was erected on the northern cataract, 
that of Mura; and the governor, Don Manuel Centurion, 
gave the name of Ciudad de San Carlos to a few houses, 
which some families consisting ot whites and mulattoes, 
had contracted near the fort. South ot the cataract ot 
Para, at the confluence of the Caura and the Erevato, 
the mission of San Luis was then situated; and a road 
by land led thence to Angostura, the capital of the pro- 
vince. All these attempts at civilization havo been fruit- 
less. No village now exists above the Baudal of Mura; 
and here, as in many other parts of the colonies, the natives 
may be said to have reconquered the country from the 
Spaniards. The valley of Caura may become one day or 
other highly interesting from the value of its productions, 
and the communications which it affords with the Bio 
Ventuari, the Carony, and the Cuyuni. I have shown above 
the importance of the four tributary streams which the 
Orinoco receives from the mountains of Parima. Near the 
mouth of the Caura, between the villages of San Pedro de 
Alcantara and San 1' rancisco de Aripao, a small lake of four 
hundred toises in diameter was formed in 1790, by the 
sinking of the ground, consequent on an earthquake. It 
was a portion of the forest of Aripao, which sunk to the 
depth of eighty or a hundred feet below the level of the 
neighbouring land. The trees remained green for several 
