378 LOCATION OF EL DORADO. 



and lower course. The Iza is called, higher up, Ptitumayo t 

 the Jupura towards its source bears the name of Caqueta. 

 The researches made in the missions of the Andaquies on 

 the real origin of the Rio Negro have been the more 

 fruitless because the Indian name of the river was un- 

 known. I heard it called Gruainia at Javita, Maroa, and 

 San Carlos. Southey, in his history of Brazil, says ex- 

 pressly that the Eio Negro, in the lower part of its course, 

 is called Gruiani, or Curana, by the natives ; in the upner 

 part, Ueneya. It is the word Gmeneya, instead of Ghiainia ; 

 for the Indians of those countries say indifferently Gruara- 

 nacua or Ouaranacua, Gluarapo or Uarapo. 



The sources of the Eio Negro have long been an object 

 of contention among geograpers. The interest we feel in 

 this question is not merely that which attaches to the 

 origin of all great rivers, but is connected with a crowd of 

 other questions, that comprehend the supposed bifurcations 

 of the Caqueta, the communications between the Rio Negro 

 and the Orinoco, and the local fable of El Dorado, for- 

 merly called Enim, or the empire of the Grand Paytiti. 

 When we study with, care the ancient maps of these 

 countries, and the history of their geographical errors, \ve 

 see how by degrees the fable of El Dorado has been trans- 

 ported towards the west with the sources of the Orinoco. 

 It was at first fixed on the eastern declivity of the Andes, 

 to the south-west of the Eio Negro. The valiant Philip 

 de Urre sought for the great city of Manoa by traversing 

 the Gruaviare. Even now the Indians of San Jose de 

 Maravitanos relate that, " on sailing to the north-east for 

 fifteen days, on the Gruape or Uaupe, you reach a famous 

 lagu/na de oro, surrounded by mountains, and so large that 

 the opposite shore cannot be discerned. A ferocious nation, 

 the Guanes, do not permit the collecting of the gold of a 

 sandy plain that surrounds the lake. Father Acunha places 

 the lake Manoa, or Tenefiti, between the Jupura and the 

 Rio Negro. Some Manoa Indians brought Eather Eritz, 

 in 1687, several slips of beaten gold. This nation, the 

 name of which is still known on the banks of the Urarira, 

 between Lamalongo and Moreira, dwelt on the Turubesh. 

 La Condamine is right in saying that this Mesopotamia, 

 between the Caqueta, the Rio Negro, the Yurubesh, and 



