382 THE QOLD-COUNTKIIE, 



quainted at the sources of the Guainia, is remarkable from 

 its being isolated in the plain that extends to the south-west 

 of the Orinoco. Its situation with regard to longitude 

 might lead to the belief that it stretches into a ridge, which 

 forms first the strait (angostura) of the Guaviare, and then 

 the great cataracts (saltos, cachoeiras) of the Uaupe and 

 the Jupura. Does this ground, composed probably of pri- 

 mitive rocks, like that which I examined more to the east, 

 contain disseminated gold ? Are there any gold-washinga 

 more to the south, toward the Uaupe, on the Iquiare 

 (Iguiari, Iguari), and on the Yurubesh (Turubach, Uru- 

 baxi) ? It was there that Philip von Huten first sought El 

 Dorado, and with a handful of men fought the battle of 

 Omaguas, so celebrated in the sixteenth century. In sepa- 

 rating what is fabulous from the narratives of the Conquis- 

 tadores, we cannot fail to recognize in the names preserved 

 on the same spots a certain basis of historic truth. "We 

 follow the expedition of Huten beyond the Guaviare and the 

 Caqeta ; we find in the Guaypes, governed by the cacique of 

 Macatoa, the inhabitants of the river of Uaupe, which also 

 bears the name of Guape, or Guapue ; we call to mind, that 

 Father Acunha calls the Iquiari (Quiquiare) ' a gold river' ; 

 and that fifty years later Father Fritz, a missionary of great 

 veracity, received, in the mission of Turimaguas, the Manaos 

 (Manoas), adorned with plates of beaten gold, coming from 

 the country between the Uaupe and the Caqueta, or 

 Jupura. The rivers that rise on the eastern declivity of the 

 Andes (for instance the Napo) carry along with them a 

 great deal of gold, even when their sources are found in 

 trachytic soils. "Why may there not be an alluvial aurife- 

 rous soil to the east of the Cordilleras, as there is to the 

 west, in the Sonoro, at Choco, and at Barbacoas ? I am 

 far from wishing to exaggerate the riches of this soil; 

 but I do not think myself authorized to deny the exist- 

 ence of precious metals in the primitive mountains of 

 Guiana, merely because in our journey through that country 

 we saw no metallic veins. It is somewhat remarkable that 

 the natives of the Orinoco have a name in their languages 

 for gold (carucwru in CaribDee, caricwi in Tamanac, cavitta 

 in Maypure), while the word they use to denote silver, 



