426 GEOGRAPHICAL EEBOR8. 



Portuguese went up most frequently by tie Amazon, the 

 Kio Negro, and the Cassiquiare, and when Father Ghunilla's 

 letters were carried (by the natural interbranching of the 

 rivers) from the lower Orinoco to Grand Para, that verv 

 missionary made every effort to spread the opinion through 

 Europe that the basins of the Orinoco and the Amazon are 

 perfectly separate. He asserts that, having several times 

 gone up the former of these rivers as far as the Raudal of 

 Tabaje, situate in the latitude of 1 4', he never saw a river 

 flow in or out that could be taken for the Rio Negro. He 

 adds further, that " a great Cordillera, which stretches from 

 east to west, prevents the mingling of the waters, and 

 renders all discussion on the supposed eommujieation of 

 the two rivers useless." The errors of Father Ghimilla 

 arose from his firm persuasion that he had reached the 

 parallel of 1 4* on the Orinoco. He was in error by 

 more than 5 10' of latitude ; for I found, by observation, at 

 the mission of Atures, thirteen leagues south of the rapids 

 of Tabaje, the latitude to be 5 37' 34*. Grumilla having 

 gone but little above the confluence of the Meta, it is not 

 surprising that he had no knowledge of the bifurcation of 

 the Orinoco, which is found by the sinuosities of the river 

 to be one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the 

 Raudal of Tabaje. 



La Condarnine, during his memorable navigation on the 

 river Amazon in 1743, carefully collected a great number of 

 proofs of this communication of the rivers, denied by the 

 Spanish Jesuit. The most decisive proof then appeared to 

 him to be the unsuspected testimony of a Cauriacani Indian 

 woman with whom he had conversed, and who had come in 

 a boat from the banks of the Orinoco (from the mission of 

 Pararuma) to Grand Para. Before the return of La Con- 

 damine to his own country, the voyage of Father Manuel 

 Roman, and the fortuitous meeting of the missionaries of 

 the Orinoco and the Amazon, left no doubt of this fact, the 

 knowledge of which was first obtained by Acunha. 



The incursions undertaken from the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, to procure slaves, had gradually led the 

 Portuguese from the Rio Negro, by the Cassiquiare, to the 

 bed of a great river, which they did not know to be the 

 Upper Orinoco. A flying camp, composed of the troop of 



