444 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 



Before the Conquista, the plaintain (Musa), which since the arrival 

 of the Spaniards has been cultivated in all the warmer parts of New 

 Granada, was only found, as Colonel Acosta believes (p. 205), at 

 Choco. On the name Cundinamarca applied by a false erudition 

 to the young republic of New Granada in 1811, a name " full of 

 golden dreams" (suenos dorados), more properly Cundirumarca (not 

 Cunturmarca, Garcilasso, lib. viii. cap. 2) see also Joaquin Acosta, 

 p. 189. Luis Daza, who joined the small invading army of the 

 Conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar which came from the south, 

 had heard of a distant country abounding in gold, called Cundiru- 

 marca, inhabited by the tribe of the Chicas, and whose prince had 

 solicited Atahuallpa, at Caxamarca, for auxiliary troops. These 

 Chicas have been confounded with the Chibchas or Muyscas of New 

 Granada; and thus the name of the unknown more southern coun- 

 try has been unduly transferred to -that territory. 



(9) p. 421. "-The fall of the Rio de Chamaya." - 

 Compare my Recueil d'Observ. Astron!, vol. i. p. 304; Nivelle- 

 ment barometrique, No. 236-242. I have given in the Vues des 

 Cordilleres, PI. xxxi. a drawing of the " swimming post," as he 

 binds round his head the handkerchief containing the letters. 



( 10 ) p. 422. " Which, on account of an old observation of La 

 Condamine, was of some importance to the geography of South 

 America." : ; i;: 



I desired to connect chronometrically Tomependa, the point at 

 which La Condamine began his voyage, and other places geographi- 

 cally determined by him on the Amazons River, with the town of 

 Quito. La Condamine had been, in June, 1743 (69 years before 

 me), at Tomependa, which place I found, by star observations taken 

 for three nights, to be in south lat. 5 31' 28", and west longitude 

 from Paris 80 56' 37" (from Greenwich 78 34' 55"). Previous 

 to my return to France, the longitude of Quito was in error to the 

 full amount of 50 ? minutes of arc, as Oltmanns has shown by my 

 observations, and by a laborious recalculation of all those previously 

 made. (Humboldt, Recueil d' Observations Astron., vol. ii. p. 309- 

 359). Jupiter's satellites, lunar distances, and occultations, give a 



