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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This, The Aruy And The Carony, Are The
Largest Tributary Streams Which The Orinoco Receives On Its Right
Bank.
All the Christian settlements are near the mouth of the river;
and the villages of San Pedro, Aripao, Urbani, and Guaraguaraico,
succeed each other at the distance of a few leagues.
The first and the
most populous contains only about two hundred and fifty souls. San
Luis de Guaraguaraico is a colony of negroes, some freed and others
fugitives from Essequibo. This colony merits the particular attention
of the Spanish Government, for it can never be sufficiently
recommended to endeavour to attach the slaves to the soil, and suffer
them to enjoy as farmers the fruits of their agricultural labours. The
land on the Caura, for the most part a virgin soil, is extremely
fertile. There are pasturages for more than 15,000 beasts; but the
poor inhabitants have neither horses nor horned cattle. More than
five-sixths of the banks of the Caura are either desert, or occupied
by independent and savage tribes. The bed of the river is twice choked
up by rocks: these obstructions occasion the famous Raudales of Mura
and of Para or Paru, the latter of which has a portage, because it
cannot be passed by canoes. At the time of the expedition of the
boundaries, a small fort was erected on the northern cataract, that of
Mura; and the governor, Don Manuel Centurion, gave the name of Ciudad
de San Carlos to a few houses which some families, consisting of
whites and mulattos, had constructed near the fort.
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