JOHN HEMMINGthe region in 1913, and Dom Adalbert (1913) guessed 4�,000 Indians in all Rio Branco in that same year. In the forests of the extreme north of Roraima lived a few hundred Ingarik (known as Akawaio or Patamona in Guyana). These were feared as formidable warriors by the Taurepang and Makuxi, and lived beyond contact with the white frontier until recent decades. The large Yanomami tribe (formerly called Waika) and the related Xirian also lived well beyond the colonial frontier, in the densely forested Parima hills between the upper Orinoco and the Uraricoera, Mucaja and Catrimani rivers. The boundary between Brazil and British Guiana (Guyana) was settled by international arbitration in 1903 but meant little to the Carib and Arawakspeaking tribes who had moved across the savannas since before the advent of colonists. The frontier does not lie on the watershed between the BrancoAmazon and the north-flowing Essequibo-Rupununi. That watershed is illdefined, lying in seasonal lakes and open grasslands. At arbitration therefore, the Ma and upper Tacutu rivers were chosen as the frontier (see Figure 1.14), since they form a more obvious north-south line of demarcation. Missionaries on either side of the frontier developed a rivalry to lure Indians, particularly the Makuxi. This rivalry was particularly strong from 1838 to 1842 when the English Protestant Reverend Thomas Youd and the Brazilian Catholic Father Jos dos Santos Inocentes clashed in their attempts to convert the Makuxi of Pirara village, which lay close to Lake Amucu on the watershed. The irara incident�led to armed occupations of Pirara by Brazilian and British troops, diplomatic protests, and the eventual neutralisation of the disputed territory until the arbitration of 1903. Later in the nineteenth century, English missionaries, particularly Protestants of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, tried to convert the Makuxi and Wapixana of southern British Guiana. Using the lures of trade goods and dedicated teaching, they were quite successful, although large parts of both tribes preferred to live beyond any contact with either the British or the Brazilians, in the hills of northern and eastern Roraima. Several other missionary incursions and some rivalry between British Protestants and Brazilian Catholics occurred in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1910 the Brazilian government created the Indian Protection Service (SPI) to protect its native tribal peoples. Roraima last surviving national fazenda, So Marcos, was awarded to the SPI to administer. For a time, using Makuxi cowhands and improved ranching techniques, So Marcos administrators increased its herd. Gondim, in 1921, was impressed to find its cattle of good quality and numbering 8,000ell up from the miserable 3,500 left by the last tenant rancher. The Makuxi were well housed and their children received primary schooling. The Indian Protection Service sought to do more than merely manage its ranch, at this time. It opened more schools for Indians, a sanatorium on the44
