192 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



part an east and west direction. From political reasons, the Bra- 

 zilians, since the beginning of the present century, have testified a 

 lively interest in the extensive plains east of the Eio Branco. See 

 the memoir which I drew up at the request of the Portuguese court 

 in 1817, " sur la fixation des limites des Guyanes Franyaise et Portu- 

 guaise" (Schoell, Archives historiques et politiques, ou Recueil de 

 Pieces omcielles, Memoires, &c. t. i. 1818, pp. 48-58). Viewing the 

 position of Santa Rosa on the Uraricapara, the course of which ap- 

 pears to have been determined with tolerable accuracy by Portu- 

 guese engineers, the sources of the Orinoco cannot be looked for 

 east of the meridian of 65^ from Paris (63. 8' W. long, from 

 Greenwich). This being the eastern limit beyond which they can- 

 not be placed, and considering the state of the river at the Raudal 

 de los Guaharibos (above Cano Chiguire, in the country of the sur- 

 prisingly fair-skinned Guaycas Indians, and 52' east of the great 

 Cerro NDuida), it appears to me probable that the upper part of the 

 Orinoco does not really extend, at the utmost, beyond the meridian 

 of 66 J from Paris (64. 8' W. from Greenwich). This point is 

 according to my combinations 4. 12' west of the little Lake of 

 Amucu, which was reached by Sir Robert Schomburgk. 



I next subjoin the conjectures of that gentleman, having given 

 the earlier ones formed by myself. According to his view, the 

 course of the upper Orinoco to the east of Esmeralda is directed 

 from southeast to northwest; my estimations of latitude for the 

 mouths of the Padamo and the Gehette appearing to be respectively 

 19 and 36' too small. Robert Schomburgk supposes the sources of 

 t the Orinoco to be in lat. 2.30' (s. 460); and the fine "Map of 

 Guayana, to illustrate the route of R. H. Schomburgk," which ac- 

 companies the splendid English work entitled " Views in the Inte- 

 rior of Guiana," places the sources of the Orinoco in 67. 18' (W. 

 from Paris), i. e. 1 6' west of Esmeralda, and only 48' of longitude 

 nearer, to the Atlantic than I had thought admissible. From astrono- 

 mical combinations, Schomburgk has placed the mountain of Mara- 

 yaca, which is upwards of nine thousand feet high, in lat. 3. 41' 

 and long. 65. 38'. Near the mouth of the Padamo or Paramu, the 

 Orinoco was scarcely three hundred yards wide ; and more to the 

 west, where it spreads to a breadth of from four to six hundred 



