14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



Interesting observations on the topography of the coast northward 

 of the mouth of the Amazon, or Maranon, are contained in the legend 

 placed on the coast of the &quot; tierra de paragotos * amigos de Arua- 

 cas &quot; : 2 &quot; toda esta costa hasta la ysla dela trinjdad como corre es 

 baxos de arena y lama, y anegadi zos. 20 leguas la tierra adetro. q[ue] 

 no ay puerto 3 p[ar]a nauio grande. ni au[n] p[ar]a verga[n]tin 

 sino co[n] gra[n] difficultad &quot; (&quot; Along this coast as far as the island 

 of Trinidad, there are shallows of sand and mud, and swamps, 

 extending over twenty leagues inland; there are no seaports for 

 large vessels, and even small ones can enter only with great diffi 

 culty&quot;)- 



&quot; Guyana, ay oro guanj &quot; (&quot; Guyane. There is gold guani [low 

 carat] &quot;), reads a legend placed in the valley formed by two short 

 chains of mountains situated between the rivers Cuyramo and Caroni, 

 two southern tributaries of the Orinoco. 



About four degrees north a long chain of mountains runs from the 

 Orinoco uninterrupted, in a southeasterly direction across the inte 

 rior, almost to the northern mouth of the Amazon. 



The region where on other maps is generally shown the legendary 

 lake of Manoa, is here occupied by the following inscription : 



&quot; esta sierra viene del reyno y del peru es alia en el peru rica de 

 plata en el reyno de oro. y por aqui esta lo q[ue] dice[n] el dorado &quot; 

 (&quot; This chain of mountains extends from the kingdom [of New 

 Granada] and from Peru; in Peru it is rich in silver; and in the 

 kingdom it is rich in gold ; and this is what they call El-Dorado &quot;). 



This strange geographical conception, a result of the influence of 

 the Indian legend on early American cartography, prevails on most 

 maps made in the second half of the sixteenth century. 4 



1 Oto is the typical termination of Carib clan-names ; cf . Cumanag-oto ; 

 Puruc-oto and many others. 



&quot; Arruans,&quot; as quoted by Goeldi, is incorrect ; cf . &quot; Memorias do Museu 

 Paraense de Historia Nat. e Ethnographia.&quot; I. &quot; Escavagoes archeologicas em 

 1895.&quot; [Para] 1900, p. 34, 2d ed., Para, 1905, 1. c. 



Goeldi is a genuine representative of the Tupi-mania. 



3 Therefore the stereotyped observations of &quot; anegadizos &quot; &quot; no visto &quot; &quot; visto 

 de lexos &quot; on the early American maps. 



4 And even on several original charts of the seventeenth century, as on those 

 made by the brothers Joao and Pedro Teixeira. The most interesting graphic 

 representation of El-Dorado appears on a manuscript chart of the lower 

 course of the Amazon River, drawn by one of the Teixeira, about 1625 to 

 1630. The photographs in original size of that as yet unpublished chart are 

 preserved in the Schuller Collection at the Library of Congress, Washington. 

 Neither of the modern bibliographers furnishes exact data on these two 

 Portuguese cartographers. 



