236 FABULOUS LEGENDS. 



These last, situated between five and six degrees of north 

 latitude, and a hundred leagues west of the Cordilleras of 

 New Grenada, in the meridian of Porto Cabello, are only 

 twelve leagues distant from each other. It is surprising 

 lhat their existence was not known to D'Anville, who, in 

 his fine map of South America, marks the inconsiderable 

 cascades of Marimara and San Borja, by the names of the 

 rapids of Carichana and Tabaje. The Great Cataracts divide 

 the Christian establishments of Spanish Guiana into two 

 unequal parts. Those situated between the Randal of 

 Atures and the mouth of the river are called the Missions 

 of the Lower Orinoco ; the Missions of the Upper Orinoco 

 comprehend the villages between the Randal oi Maypures 

 and the mountains of Duida. The course of the Lower 

 Orinoco, if we estimate "the sinuosities at one-third of the 

 distance in a direct line, is two hundred and sixty nautical 

 leagues: the course of the Upper Orinoco, supposing ita 

 sources to be three degrees east of Duida, includes one hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven leagues. 



Beyond the Great Cataracts an unknown land begins. 

 The country is partly mountainous and partly flat, receiving 

 at once the confluents of the Amazon and the Orinoco. 

 From the facility of its communications with the Bio Negro 

 and Grand Para, it appears to belong still more to Brazil 

 than to the Spanish colonies. None of the missionaries 

 who have described the Orinoco before me, neither Father 

 Gumilla, Gili, nor Caulin, had passed the Raudal of May- 

 pures. We found but three Christian establishments above 

 the Great Cataracts, along the shores of the Orinoco, in an 

 extent of more than a hundred leagues; and these three 

 establishments contained scarcely six or eight white persons, 

 that is to say, persons of European race. We cannot be 

 surprised that such a desert region should have been at 

 all times the land of fable and fairy visions. There, accord- 

 ing to the statements of certain missionaries, are found 

 races of men, some of whom have an eye in the centre of 

 the forehead, whilst others have dogs' heads, and mouths 

 below their stomachs. There they pretend to have found 

 all that the ancients relate of the Garamantes, of the Ari- 

 maspes, and of the Hyperboreans. It would be an error 

 to suppose that these simple and often rustic missioDariea 



