196 
iyorAx poiTEar 
The potteries of Mamquarez, celebrated from time imme- 
morial torm a branch of industry which is exclusively in the 
hands of the Indian women. Tlie manufacture is still carried 
on according to the method used before the conquest. It 
indicates both the infancy of the art, and that unchangeabilitv 
of manners which is characteristic of all the natives of 
America. Three centuries have been insufficient to intro- 
duce the potter’ s-wheel, on a coast which is not above thirty 
or forty days’ sail from Spain. The natives have some con- 
fused notions with respect to the existence of this machine, 
and they would no doubt make use of it if it were introduced 
among them. The quarries whence they obtain the clay are 
half a league to the east of Maniquarez. This clay is pro- 
duced by natural decomposition of a mica-slate reddened by 
oxide of iron. The Indian womeu prefer the part most 
abounding in mica ; and with great skill fashion vessels two 
or three feet in diameter, giving them a very regular curve. 
As they are not acquainted with the use ‘ of ovens, they 
place twigs of desmanthus, cassia, and the arborescent 
capparis, around the pots, and bake them in the open air. 
To the east of the quarry which furnishes the clay is the 
ravine of La Mina. It is asserted, that, a short time after 
the conquest, some Yenetiaus extracted gold from the 
mica-slate. _ It appears, that this metal was not collected 
in veins of quartz, but was found disseminated in the rock, 
as it is sometimes in granite and gneiss. 
At Maniquarez we met with some creoles, who had been 
hunting at Cubagua.. Deer of a small breed are so common 
in this uninhabited islet, that a single individual may kill 
three or four in a day. I know not by what accident these 
animals have got thither, for Laet and other chroniclers of 
these countries, speaking of the foundation of New Cadiz, 
mention only the great abundance of rabbits. The venado 
of Cubagua belongs to one of those numerous species of 
small American deer, which zoologists have long confounded 
under the vague name of Cervus mexicanus. It does not 
appear to be the same as the hind of the savannahs of Ca- 
yenne, or the guazuti of Paraguay, which live also in herds. 
Its colour is a brownish red on the back, and white under 
the belly ; and it is spotted like the axis. In the plains of 
Cari we were shown, aa a thing very rare in these hot 
