MANUFACTURING
TRIBES.
477
vent. W e w e r e assured that a great lamp o f massive silver, purchased at the e x p e n s e o f t h e n e o p h y t e s , is e x p e c t e d from Madrid. Let us hope that, after the arrival o f this treasure, they will think also o f c l o t h i n g the I n d i a n s , o f p r o c u r i n g for them s o m e instruments of agriculture, and assembling their children in a school. A l t h o u g h there are a few oxen in t h e savannahs round the mission, they are rarely e m p l o y e d in turning the mill ( t r a p i c h e ) , t o express the j u i c e o f the s u g a r - c a n e ; this is the occupation of the Indians, w h o w o r k without pay here as they d o everywhere when they are u n d e r stood t o work for the c h u r c h . T h e pasturages at t h e foot of the mountains r o u n d Santa Barbara are n o t so rich as at Esmeralda, but superior to those at San Fernando de A t a bapo. T h e grass is short and t h i c k , y e t the upper stratum of earth furnishes only a dry and parched granitic sand, t h e savannahs (far from fertile) of t h e banks o f the G u a viare, the M e t a , and the U p p e r O r i n o c o , arc equally destitute of the mould which a b o u n d s in the surrounding forests, and of the thick stratum o f (day, which covers the sandstone of the Llanos, o r steppes of Venezuela. T h e small herbaceous mimosas c o n t r i b u t e in this zone to fatten the cattle, but are very rare between the Rio Jao and the m o u t h o f the Guaviare. D u r i n g the few h o u r s o f o u r stay at the mission o f Santa Barbara, we obtained pretty accurate ideas respecting the Rio Ventuari, which, next to the Guaviare, appeared to me to be t h e m o s t considerable tributary o f t h e O r i n o c o . Its banks, heretofore o c c u p i e d b y the M a y p u r e s , are still p e o pled by a great n u m b e r o f independent nations. On going up b y the m o u t h o f t h e V e n t u a r i , which forms a delta covered with palm-trees, you find in the east, after three days' j o u r n e y , the Cumaruita and the Paru, t w o streams that rise at t h e f o o t o f t h e l o f t y m o u n t a i n s o f C u n e v a . h i g h e r up, on the. west, lie the Mariata and the Manipiare, inhabited by the Macos and Curacicanas. The latter nation is remarkable for their active cultivation o f c o t t o n . In a hostile incursion (entrada) a large house was found c o n t a i n ing more than thirty or forty hammocks o f a very fine t e x ture of s p u n cotton cordage. and fishing implements. The natives had fled; and Father Valor informed us, that t h e Indians of the mission who accompanied him had sot fire t o