SOURCE Of THX GREAT STREAMS. 381 



between the five great tributary streams of the Orinoco and 

 the Amazon ; the Guaviare, the Inirida, the Eio Negro, the 

 Caqueta or Hyapura, and the Putumayo or Iza. 



The Meta, the Guaviare, the Caqueta, and the Putumayo, 

 are the only great rivers that rise immediately from the 

 eastern declivity of the Andes of Santa Fe, Popayan, and 

 Pasto. The Vichada, the Zama, the Inirida, the Eio Negro, 

 the TJaupe, and the Apoporis, which are marked in our maps 

 as extending westward as far as the mountains, take rise at 

 a great distance from them, either in the savannahs between 

 the Meta and the Guaviare, or in the mountainous country 

 which, according to the information given me by the natives, 

 begins at four or five days' journey westward of the missions 

 of Javita and Maroa, and extends through the Sierra Tuhuny, 

 beyond the Xie, towards the banks of the Issana. 



It is remarkable that this ridge of the Cordilleras, which 

 contains the sources of so many majestic rivers, (the Meta, 

 the Guaviare, the Caqueta, and the Putumayo,) is as little 

 covered with snow as the mountains of Abyssinia from 

 which flow the waters of the Blue Nile ; but, on the con- 

 trary, on going up the tributary streams which furrow the 

 plains, a volcano is found still in activity, before you reach 

 the Cordillera of the Andes. This phenomenon was disco- 

 vered by the Franciscan monks, who go down from Ceja by 

 the Eio Fragua to Caqueta. A solitary hill, emitting smoke 

 night and day, is found on the north-east of the mission 

 of Santa Eosa, and west of the Puerto del Pescado. This 

 is the effect of a lateral action of the volcanos of Popayan 

 and Pasto ; as Guacamayo and Sangay, situated also at the 

 foot of the eastern declivity of the Ajides. are the effect 

 of a lateral action produced by the system of the volcanos 

 of Quito. After having closely inspected the banks of the 

 Orinoco and the Eio Negro, where the granite everywhere 

 pierces the soil ; when we reflect on the total absence of 

 volcanos in Brazil, Guiana, on the coast of Venezuela, and 

 perhaps in all that part of the continent lying eastward of 

 the Andes ; we contemplate with interest the three burning 

 volcanoa situated near the sources of the Caqueta, the Napo f 

 and the Eio de Macas or Morona. 



The little group of mountains with which we became ao 



