Up the Orinoco by B. Connerly

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 4, 1909

Up the Orinoco

By B. Connerly

WHILE on a pioneering trip up the Orinoco, in Venezuela, with our Spanish literature, I visited several Indian villages. As Spanish is spoken in some of them, I could converse with the people. They are, as a rule, very poor, and their homes are the rudest that can be imagined. They sleep in hammocks, and cook their food on camp-fires. They use neither table nor dishes. About their houses are to be found a burro, two or three goats, two or three pigs, a chicken or two, six or eight monkeys, four or five parrots, and at least a dozen dogs.

The first native convert that I met

asked me at once to what denomination I belonged. When I told him, he said, "O, I am so glad! I want to know what you are like. You must come to my house." He said he and his wife were anxious to know concerning the truths we are teaching.

I found many persons with whom the Spirit of the Lord is working. I readily sold all the books that I had with me, and took subscriptions for our paper, El Centinela, in all the towns, and distributed many tracts. "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few."

B. CONNERLY.