515
CRUELTY TO A SLAVE.
J o s e do Iturriaga founded the Pueblo de Ciudad Peal, which still figures on the most modern m a p s , t h o u g h it has n o t existed for fifty years past, on account o f the insalubrity o f its situation. B e y o n d the point where the O r i n o c o turns t o the east, forests are constantly seen on the right bank, and t h e llanos o r steppes o f V e n e z u e l a o n the left. T h e forests which border the river, are not however so thick as those o f the Upper O r i n o c o . T h e population, which a u g m e n t s perceptibly as you advance toward the capital, comprises but few Indians, and is composed chiefly o f whites, negroes, and men o f m i x e d descent. T h e n u m b e r o f the negroes is n o t great; but here, as everywhere else, the poverty o f their masters does not t e n d t o p r o c u r e for t h e m more humane treatment. A n inhabitant o f Caycara had j u s t b e e n c o n d e m n e d t o four years' i m p r i s o n m e n t , and a fine o f o n e h u n dred piastres, for having, in a paroxysm o f rage, tied a negress by the legs to the tail of his horse, and dragged her at full gal'loo through the savannah, till she expired. I t is gratifying to record that the Audiencia was generally blamed in the c o u n t r y , for not having punished more severely so atrocious an action. Yet some few persons, who pretended to be the most enlightened and most sagacious o f the c o m munity, deemed the punishment o f a white centrary t o sound policy, at the moment when the blacks o f St. D o m i n g o were in c o m p l e t e insurrection. Since I left those countries, civil dissensions have put arms into the hands o f the slaves; and fatal e x p e r i e n c e has led the inhabitants o f V e n e z u e l a t o regret that they refused t o listen t o D o n D o m i n g o T o v a r , and other right-thinking men, w h o , as early as the year 1795, lifted up their voices in the cabildo o f Caracas, t o prevent the introduction o f blacks, and to p r o p o s e means that might ammeliorate their c o n d i t i o n . A f t e r having slept on the 10th o f J u n e in an island in the middle of the river, (I believe that called Acaru by Father C a u l i n ) , we passed the m o u t h o f the Rio Caura. T h i s , t h e Aruy and the Carony, are the largest tributary streams Which the O r i n o c o receives o n its right bank. A l l the Christian settlements are near the mouth o f the river; and the villages of San Pedro, Aripao, Urbani, and Guaraguaraico, succeed each other at the distance o f a few leagues. T h e firts and the most populous, contains only about t w o 2
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