Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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RAUDAL OF GARCITA.
MAYPURES.
CATARACTS OF QUITUNA.
MOUTH OF THE VICHADA AND THE ZAMA.
ROCK OF ARICAGUA.
SIQUITA.
We directed our course to the Puerto de arriba, above the cataract of
Atures, opposite the mouth of the Rio Cataniapo, where our boat was to
be ready for us. In the narrow path that leads to the embarcadero we
beheld for the last time the peak of Uniana. It appeared like a cloud
rising above the horizon of the plains. The Guahibos wander at the
foot of the mountains, and extend their course as far as the banks of
the Vichada. We were shown at a distance, on the right of the river,
the rocks that surround the cavern of Ataruipe; but we had not time to
visit that cemetery of the destroyed tribe of the Atures. Father Zea
had repeatedly described to us this extraordinary cavern, the
skeletons painted with anoto, the large vases of baked earth, in which
the bones of separate families appear to be collected; and many other
curious objects, which we proposed to examine on our return from the
Rio Negro. "You will scarcely believe," said the missionaries, "that
these skeletons, these painted vases, things which we believed were
unknown to the rest of the world, have brought trouble upon me and my
neighbour, the missionary of Carichana. You have seen the misery in
which I live in the raudales. Though devoured by mosquitos, and often
in want of plantains and cassava, yet I have found envious people even
in this country! A white man, who inhabits the pastures between the
Meta and the Apure, denounced me recently in the Audencia of Caracas,
as concealing a treasure I had discovered, jointly with the missionary
of Carichana, amid the tombs of the Indians. It is asserted that the
Jesuits of Santa Fe de Bogota were apprised beforehand of the
destruction of their company; and that, in order to save the riches
they possessed in money and precious vases, they sent them, either by
the Rio Meta or the Vichada, to the Orinoco, with orders to have them
hidden in the islets amid the raudales. These treasures I am supposed
to have appropriated unknown to my superiors. The Audencia of Caracas
brought a complaint before the governor of Guiana, and we were ordered
to appear in person. We uselessly performed a journey of one hundred
and fifty leagues; and, although we declared that we had found in the
cavern only human bones, and dried bats and polecats, commissioners
were gravely nominated to come hither and search on the spot for the
supposed treasures of the Jesuits. We shall wait long for these
commissioners. When they have gone up the Orinoco as far as San Borja,
the fear of the mosquitos will prevent them from going farther. The
cloud of flies which envelopes us in the raudales is a good defence."
The account given by the missionary was entirely conformable to what
we afterwards learned at Angostura from the governor himself.
Fortuitous circumstances had given rise to the strangest suspicions.
In the caverns where the mummies and skeletons of the nation of the
Atures are found, even in the midst of the cataracts, and in the most
inaccessible islets, the Indians long ago discovered boxes bound with
iron, containing various European tools, remnants of clothes,
rosaries, and glass trinkets. These objects are thought to have
belonged to Portuguese traders of the Rio Negro and Grand Para, who,
before the establishment of the Jesuits on the banks of the Orinoco,
went up to Atures by the portages and interior communications of
rivers, to trade with the natives. It is supposed that these men sunk
beneath the epidemic maladies so common in the raudales, and that
their chests became the property of the Indians, the wealthiest of
whom were usually buried with all they possessed most valuable during
their lives. From these very uncertain traditions the tale of hidden
treasures has been fabricated. As in the Andes of Quito every ruined
building, not excepting the foundations of the pyramids erected by the
French savans for the measurement of the meridian, is regarded as Inga
pilca,* that is, the work of the Inca (* Pilca (properly in Quichua
pirca), wall of the Inca.); so on the Orinoco every hidden treasure
can belong only to the Jesuits, an order which, no doubt, governed the
missions better than the Capuchins and the monks of the Observance,
but whose riches and success in the civilization of the Indians have
been much exaggerated. When the Jesuits of Santa Fe were arrested,
those heaps of piastres, those emeralds of Muzo, those bars of gold of
Choco, which the enemies of the company supposed they possessed, were
not found in their dwellings. I can cite a respectable testimony,
which proves incontestibly, that the viceroy of New Granada had not
warned the Jesuits of Santa Fe of the danger with which they were
menaced. Don Vicente Orosco, an engineer officer in the Spanish army,
related to me that, being arrived at Angostura, with Don Manuel
Centurion, to arrest the missionaries of Carichana, he met an Indian
boat that was going down the Rio Meta. The boat being manned with
Indians who could speak none of the tongues of the country, gave rise
to suspicions. After useless researches, a bottle was at length
discovered, containing a letter, in which the Superior of the company
residing at Santa Fe informed the missionaries of the Orinoco of the
persecutions to which the Jesuits were exposed in New Grenada. This
letter recommended no measure of precaution; it was short, without
ambiguity, and respectful towards the government, whose orders were
executed with useless and unreasonable severity.
Eight Indians of Atures had conducted our boat through the raudales,
and seemed well satisfied with the slight recompence we gave them.
They gain little by this employment; and in order to give a just idea
of the poverty and want of commerce in the missions of the Orinoco, I
shall observe that during three years, with the exception of the boats
sent annually to Angostura by the commander of San Carlos de Rio
Negro, to fetch the pay of the soldiers, the missionary had seen but
five canoes of the Upper Orinoco pass the cataract, which were bound
for the harvest of turtles' eggs, and eight boats laden with
merchandize.
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