Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 369 



Maranon like another Ñilcj through seven or eight 

 months, and these are at such a distance, that the in- 

 ternicdiaie space betwixt the fir«;t and the last is not 

 less than 100 leagues; and the other, which runs to 

 the eastward, is not less famous under the name of 

 Negro. M. de la Condamine, in the narrative of 

 his voyage, confirms the opinion of its being one of 

 the conimunications betwixt the Oronoque and Ma- 

 ranon; and corroborates his assertion, by the autho- 

 rity of a map composed by father John Ferreira, 

 rector of the college of Jesuits in the city of Gran 

 Para; in which he observes, that in the year 1744 a 

 flying camp of Portuguese, posted on the banks of the 

 Negro, having embarked on that river, went up it, 

 till they found themselves near the Spanish missions 

 on the river Oronoque, and meeting with the su- 

 perior of them, returned with him to the flying camp 

 on the river Negro, without going a step by land ; on 

 which the author makes this remark, That the river 

 Caqueta, (already mentioned, and so called from a 

 small place by v/hich it passes, near its source) issuing 

 from Mocoa, a country joining eastward to Almaguar 

 in the jurisdiction ofPopayan, after runtiing eastward 

 with a small declension towards the south, divides it- 

 self into two branches; one of which declining a lit- 

 tle more southward, forms the river Yupura, and af- 

 terwards separating into several arms, runs, as we have 

 noted above, into the Maranon, through seven or 

 eight mouths; and the other, after a course eastward, 

 subdividesitself into two branches, one of which, run- 

 ning north-east, joins the Oronoque; and the other, 

 in a south-east direction, is the river Negro. This 

 subdivision in the branches of large rivers, and th^ir 

 opposite courses, though something extraordinary, is 

 not destitute of probability ; for a river flowing 

 through a country every way level, may very naturally 

 divide into two or more branches, in those parts where 

 it meets with any inclination, though almost insensi- 

 VoL. I. B b ble, 



