188 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



determinations of longitude for these points of the Parime are 

 in general one degree more east than those in my map of 

 Colombia. While I am far from calling in question the result 

 of these lunar observations taken at Anai, I may be allowed 

 to observe that the calculation of these distances is of im- 

 portance, when it is desired to carry the comparison from the 

 lake of Amucu to Esmeralda, which I found in 66° 19' west 

 longitude. 



Thus then we see the great Mar de la Parima, (which it was 

 so difficult to remove from our maps, that even after my return 

 from America it was still supposed to be 160 miles in length,) 

 reduced by recent investigations to the lake of Amucu, mea- 

 suring only two or three miles in circumference. The illu- 

 sions entertained for nearly two hundred years, and which in 

 the last Spanish expedition, in 1775, for the discovery of 

 El Dorado, cost several hundred lives, have finally terminated 

 by enriching geography with some few results. In the year 

 1512 thousands of soldiers perished in the expedition, under- 

 taken by Ponce de Leon, to discover the " Fountain of Youth,'' 

 on one of the Bahama Islands, called Binimi, wdiich is hardly 

 to be found on any of our maps. This expedition led to 

 the conquest of Florida, and to the knowledge of the great 

 oceanic current, or gulf- stream, which flows through the 

 Straights of Bahama. The thirst after gold, and the desire of 

 rejuvenescence — the Dorado and the Fountain of Youth — 

 stimulated, to an almost equal extent, the passions of man- 

 kind. 



(10) p. 161 — " The Piriguao, one of the noblest forms of 



the Palm:'' 



Compare Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nova Genera 

 Plantarum, and Plant, aquinoct., t. i. p. 315. 



(11) p. 171 — " The grave of an extinct racer 



During my stay in the forests of the Orinoco, researches 

 w r ere being made, by royal command, in reference to these 

 bone-caves. The missionary of the cataracts had been falsely 

 accused of having discovered in these caves treasures which 

 the Jesuits had concealed there prior to their flight. 



(12) p. 172 — " When his language perished icith him:'' 



The parrot of the Atures has been made the subject of a 



