IN SOUTH AMERICA. i^l 



January 1 744. Deftitute therefore of this effential, and committed to the little expe- 

 rience and timidity of my American rowers, and the perfon affigned me to command 

 them (a Portuguefe Meftee who fpoke their language and who even confidered me 

 myfelf as fuDJeft to his orders), I was two months on a voyage which might have been 

 effeded in a fortnight, a delay which hindered my being able to obferve the comet on 

 fliore which at this time made its appearance, and which was loft in the fun's rays 

 before I reached Cayenne. 



Some leagues below Para, I croiTed the eaftern mouth of the Amazons, or the Para 

 branch, feparated from the real or weftern mouth by the large ifland called by the 

 Portuguefe Joannes, but more commonly at Para Marajo, and by the Americans there 

 Marago. This lingle ifland occupies almoft the whole intervening fpace between the 

 two mouths of the river. It is of an irregular form, and more than one hundred and 

 fifty leagues in circumference. Inftead of this fmgle ifland, in almoft all maps is fub- 

 ftituted a multitude of fmall iflands, which might be conceived to have been laid down 

 at hazard were they not copied into the Flambeau de la Mer, accompanied by details 

 as falfe as circumftantial. The Para branch where I crofled, five to fix leagues below 

 that city, is upwards of three leagues broad, and thence, as it approaches the fea, con- 

 tinues to increafe. I coafted along the ifland, running towards the north for thirty 

 leagues, as far as its laft head-land called Maguari, beyond which I turned weftward, 

 keeping in with the coaft of the ifland ; which in this direction fpreads forty leagues, 

 diverging fcarcely at all from the equatorial line. I pa^ed within fight of two great 

 iflands which I left on the north, the one called Machiana, the other Caviana, now 

 deferts, but once inhabited by the Arouas, who, though difperfed, have preferved 

 their peculiar tongue. Thefe iflands, like the major part of the ifland of Marajo, are 

 nearly level with the water, fwampy, and almoft uninhabitable. I left the coaft of 

 Marajo where the ifland bends towards the fouth, and once again enterd into the real 

 bed, or principal channel of the Amazons, oppofite the new fort of Macapa, on the 

 weftern bank of the river, tranfported by the Portuguefe two leagues to the northward 

 of the antient fcite. It would be impofllble on this part to crofs the river in common 

 boats, were not the channel narrowed by fmall iflands, under flielter of which, by 

 feleding favourable feafons, it is crofled with fafety. From the laft ifland, however, 

 to Macapa, there is ftill a diftance of two leagues. In this laft trip I at length repaflfed, 

 for the laft time, the eqfuinodial line, towards which I had infenfibly progreflfed from 

 the point of embarkation. At Fort Macapa, or, more properly fpeaking, on the fpot 

 deftined for the new fort, on the 1 8th and 1 9th January, I obferved the latitude to be 

 o*^ 3' N. 



The bafement on which the fort is to be raifed is two or three toifes above high-water- 

 mark. It is only the margin of the river in this part which is covered with trees, the 

 land in the interior is open, the firft unwooded country which I had noticed fince I had 

 left the Cordillera of Quito. The natives aflTured me it continues thus towards the north, 

 and that one might travel hence on horfe-back to the fources of the Oyapoc, over large 

 open favannahs, on which but a few thinly growing fmall woods are feen at intervals. 

 From the vicinage of the fources of the Oyapoc, are diftinguiflied, towards the north, 

 the Aprouaga mountains, which alfo are diftindHy perceptible at fea, many leagues 

 from the coaft. Taking thus much for granted, it is evident that, departing from 

 Cayenne in lat. 5^ o' N. and proceeding fouthward, two, three, nay perhaps four 

 degrees of the meridian might have been meafured without quitting the French terri- 

 tory: in fliort, if ch'ofen, one might, vidth permiflion from Portugal, have extended 

 the line to the parallel of Macapa, that is to fay to the equator. This plan would 



K K 2 undoubtedly 



