182 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



of collateral branches, the Orinoco, Siapa, and Ocamo. I was 

 able to convince myself on the spot of the following facts well 

 known in the missions; that Don Jose Solano did not do 

 more than cross the cataracts of Atures and Maypures ; that 

 he did not reach the confluence of the Guaviare and the 

 Orinoco in 4 3' north lat., and 68 9' west long.; and that 

 the astronomical instruments of the boundary expedition were 

 neither carried to the isthmus of the Pimichin and the Rio 

 Negro, nor to the Cassiquiare ; and even on the Upper Orinoco, 

 not beyond the mouth of the Atabapo. This vast extent 

 of territory was not made the scene of any accurate observa- 

 tions before my journey, and has subsequently to Solano's 

 expedition been traversed only by some few soldiers who had 

 been sent on exploring expeditions ; while Don Apolinario de 

 Fuente, whose journal I obtained from the archives of the 

 province of Quixos, has gathered without discrimination every- 

 thing from the fallacious narratives of the Indians that could 

 flatter the credulity of the Governor Centurion. No member 

 of the expedition had seen a lake, and Don Apolinario was 

 unable to advance beyond the Cerro Yumarique and Gehette. 

 Although a line of separation, formed by the basin of the 

 Rio Branco, is now established throughout the whole extent of 

 the country, to which we are desirous of directing the inquiring 

 zeal of travellers, it must yet be admitted, that our geo- 

 graphical knowledge of the district west of this valley between 

 62 and 66 long., has made no advance whatever for at least 

 a century. The repeated attempts made by the Government 

 of Spanish Guiana since the expeditions of Iturria and Solano, 

 to reach and to pass over the Pacaraima Mountains, have 

 been attended by very unimportant results. When the 

 Spaniards, in proceeding to the missions of the Catalonian 

 capuchins of Barceloneta, at the confluence of the Caroni and 

 the Rio Paragua, ascended the last-named river southward to 

 its junction with the Paraguamusi, they founded at this 

 point the mission of Guirion, which, at first, bore the 

 pompous appellation of Ciudad de Guirion. I place it in 

 about 4 30* north latitude. From thence the Governor 

 Centurion, in consequence of the exaggerated accounts given 

 by two Indian chiefs, Paranacare and Arimuicapi, respect- 

 ing the powerful tribe of the Ipurucotos, was excited to 

 search for 'El Dorado,' and in carrying what were then 

 called spiritual conquests still further, founded, beyond the 



