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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The Rio Conorichite, Or Itinivini, Formerly Facilitated The Trade In
Slaves Carried On By The Portuguese In The Spanish Territory.
The
slave-traders went up by the Cassiquiare and the Cano Mee to
Conorichite; and thence dragged their canoes by a portage to the
rochelas of Manuteso, in order to enter the Atabapo.
This abominable
trade lasted till about the year 1756; when the expedition of Solano,
and the establishment of the missions on the banks of the Rio Negro,
put an end to it. Old laws of Charles V and Philip III* (* 26 January
1523 and 10 October 1618.) had forbidden under the most severe
penalties (such as the being rendered incapable of civil employment,
and a fine of two thousand piastres), the conversion of the natives to
the faith by violent means, and sending armed men against them; but
notwithstanding these wise and humane laws, the Rio Negro, in the
middle of the last century, was no further interesting in European
politics, than as it facilitated the entradas, or hostile incursions,
and favoured the purchase of slaves. The Caribs, a trading and warlike
people, received from the Portuguese and the Dutch, knives,
fish-hooks, small mirrors, and all sorts of glass beads. They excited
the Indian chiefs to make war against each other, bought their
prisoners, and carried off, themselves, by stratagem or force, all
whom they found in their way. These incursions of the Caribs
comprehended an immense extent of land; they went from the banks of
the Essequibo and the Carony, by the Rupunuri and the Paraguamuzi on
one side, directly south towards the Rio Branco; and on the other, to
the south-west, following the portages between the Rio Paragua, the
Caura, and the Ventuario.
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