174 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



plexion, but of small stature, armed with poisoned arrows, forbid 

 any farther advance towards the east. 



All, therefore, that has been put forward respecting the lake 

 origin of the Orinoco is fabulous. ( 9 ) We seek in vain in nature for 

 the Laguna of El Dorado, which is still marked in Arrowsmith's 

 maps as an inland sea 80 geographical miles in length. Has the 

 little reedy Lake of Amucu, from which the Pirara (a branch of the 

 Mahu) flows, given rise to this fable ? But the swamp in which 

 the Lake of Amucu is situated is four degrees of longitude to the 

 east of the district in which the sources of the Orinoco must be 

 sought. 



It was an ancient custom of dogmatizing geographers to make all 

 the larger rivers of the world originate in considerable lakes. To 

 the lake forming the supposed origin of the Orinoco was transferred 

 the site of the Island of Pumacena, a rock of micaceous slate, the 

 glitter of which, in the 16th century, played, in the fable of El 

 Dorado, a memorable, and to deceived humanity often a fatal part. 

 It is the belief of the natives, that the Magellanic clouds of the 

 Southern Hemisphere, and even the fine nebulae in the constellation 

 of the ship Argo, are a reflection of the metallic brilliancy of the 

 silver mountains of the Parime. 



The Orinoco is one of those rivers which, after many windings, 

 seem to return back towards the region in which they took their 

 rise. After following a westerly and then a northerly course, it 

 runs again to the east, so that its mouth is almost in the same 

 meridian as its source. From the Chiguire and the Gehette as far 

 as the Guaviare, the Orinoco flows to the west, as if it would carry 

 its waters to the Pacific. It is in this part of its course that it 

 sends out towards the south a remarkable arm, the Cassiquiare, but 

 little known in Europe, which unites with the Rio Negro (called 

 by the natives the Guainia), and offers perhaps the only example of 

 a bifurcation forming in the very interior of a continent a natural 

 connection between two great rivers and their basins. 



The nature of the ground, and the junction of the Guaviare and 

 Atabapo with the Orinoco, cause the latter to turn suddenly towards 

 the north. In the absence of correct geographical knowledge, the 

 Guaviare flowing in from the west was long regarded as the true 



