With the Maypures Indians, it is the women who decorate the vessels, clean the clay by washing it several times; then they shape it into cylinders and mould even the largest jars with their hands. The American Indians never discovered the potter's wheel.

Leaving the tableland of Guardia we descended to the Indian village of Santa Cruz. First we reached a steep, extremely slippery slope that the missionaries strangely named Bajada del Purgatorio, or Descent of Purgatory. It consists of eroded slaty sandstone, covered with clay; the slope seems terribly steep. To go down, the mules draw their hind legs to their forelegs, lower their rumps and trust their luck sliding downhill. The rider has nothing to fear as long as he drops the reins and leaves the mule alone. From here to the left we saw the great pyramid of Guàcharo. This calcareous peak looks very picturesque, but we soon lost it to view when we entered the thick jungle known as Montana de Santa María. We spent seven hours crossing it. It is hard to imagine a worse path; a veritable ladder, a kind of gorge where, during the rainy season, torrent water rushes down the rocks step by step. The steps are from 2 to 3 feet high. The hapless animals first have to calculate how to pass their loads between the tree trunks, and then jump from one block to another. Scared of slipping they wait a few moments, as if studying the terrain, and then draw their four legs together like wild goats do. If the mule misses the nearest rock it sinks deep into the soft ochre clay that fills in the gaps between the rocks. When there are no rocks, the rider's feet and the mule's legs are supported by a tangle of enormous tree roots. The creoles have faith in the skill and instinct of their mules and remain in the saddle during the long dangerous descent. We preferred to dismount because we feared fatigue less than they do, and were more prepared to travel slowly as we never stopped collecting plants and examining the rocks.

It is thought that some of the plants that grow on the rocky islands of Lake Valencia are exclusive to them because they have not been discovered elsewhere. Among these are the papaw tree of the lake (papaya de la laguna), and a tomato (81) from Cura Island; this differs from our Solanum lycopersicum in that its fruit is round and small but very tasty. The papaw of the lake is common also on Cura Island and at Cabo Blanco. Its trunk is slenderer than the ordinary papaw, but its fruit is half the size and completely round, without projecting ribs. This fruit, which I have often eaten, is extremely sweet.

If the independent Indians have almost disappeared over the last century in those areas north of the Orinoco, it must not be concluded that fewer Indians exist at present than in the time of the bishop of Chiapas, Bartolomeo de las Casas. I have already proved in my work on Mexico how mistaken it is to assume the destruction and diminution of Indians in the Spanish colonies, as Ulloa has written 'Es cosa constante irse disminuyendo por todas partes el numero de los Indios' (There is everywhere a constant decrease in the number of Indians). There are still more than 6 million copper-colored races in both Americas, and though countless tribes and languages have died out it is beyond discussion that within the Tropics, where civilization arrived with Columbus, the number of Indians has considerably increased. (61)