^1 

 ) 



roo ULLOA*S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



Qronoque and Maranon ; and corroborates his affertion, by the authority of a map 

 compofed by father John Ferreira, redlor of the college of Jefuits in the city of Gran 

 Para ; in which he obferves, that in the year 1744? a flying camp of Portuguefe, polled 

 on the banks of the Negro, having embarked on that river, went up it, till they found 

 tiTemfelves near the Spanifh miffions on the river Oronoque, and meeting with the fu- 

 perior of them, returned with him to the flying camp on the river Negro, without 

 going a fl:ep>by land ; on which, the author makes this remark, that the river Caqueta, 

 (already mentioned, and fo called from a fmall place by which it paflTes, near its fource) 

 ifluing from Mocoa, a country joining eafl:ward to Almaguar in the jurifdiclion of Po- 

 payan, after running eafl:ward with a fmall declenfion towards the fouth, divides itfelf 

 into two branches ; one of which declining a little more fouthward, forms the river 

 Yupura, and after feparating into feveral arms, runs, as we have noted above, into the 

 Maranon, through feven or eight mouths ; and the other, after a courfe eaftward, fub- 

 divides itfelf into two branches, one of which, running north-eafl:, joins the Oronoque ; 

 and the other, in a fouth-eaft direction, is the river Negro. This fubdivifion in the 

 branches of large rivers, and their oppofite courfes, though fomething extraordinary, 

 is not deftitute of probability ; for a river flowing through a country every way level, 

 may very naturally divide into two or more branches, in thofg parts where it meets 

 with any inclination, though almoft infenfible, in the ground. If this declivity be not 

 very great, and the river large and deep, it will eafily become navigable every where, 

 with a free pafliage from one arm into the other. And in this manner the marfhes are 

 formed in a level country, as we have particularly remarked in the coaft of Tumbez : 

 for the fea-water on the flood running into thefe various mouths, which fometimes are 

 twenty leagues diftant or more, a veflTel enters one arm by the favour of the tide ; but 

 coming to a place where the foil rifes, the fl:ream runs againft her, being the water 

 which the fame flood had impelled through another channel. Thus the ebb caufes the 

 waters to feparate at that point ; and eacjih portion of water takes the fame courfe at 

 going out as at its entrance ; yet the plaCe where the feparation is made is not left dry. 

 But even though the place where the waters of the river Caqueta are feparated fliould 

 not be level, or nearly horizontal, but lie on a confiderable declivity, yet if this fall be 

 equal on both fides, one part of the waters may take its courfe to the Oronoque, and 

 the other to the Negro, without any other confequence than that the great rapidity 

 would render them impradicable to navigation ; but this has nothing to do with the 

 divifion of the waters, it being no more than forming an ifland either large or fmall. 



From the province of Quito there are three ways to the river Maranon ; but all ex- 

 tremely troublefome and fatiguing, from the nature of the climate, and being full of 

 rocks, that a great part of the dift:ance mufl: be travelled on foot ; for being fo little 

 frequented, no care has been taken to mend them, whence they are even more danger- 

 ous than the others in South America, of which we have given a defcription. 



The firft of thefe roads, which is the neareft to the town of Quito, runs through 

 Baza and Archidona ; where you embark on the river Napo. The fecond is by Ham- 

 bato and Papate, at the foot of the mountain of Tunguragua j and from thence the 

 road lies through the country of Canelos, watered by the river Bobonaza, which joining 

 the Pafi:aza, both difcharge themfelves into the Maranon. The third lies through 

 Cuenca, Loja, Valladolid, and Jaen, from whence at the village of Chuchunga, which 

 is as it were its port, this river becomes navigable ; and here all embark who are either 

 going to Manas, or a longer voyage on this river. Of the three, this alone is pra6li- 

 cable to beafl:s ; but the tedioufnefs of the diftance from Quito renders it the leaft fre- 

 quented ; for the miflionaries, who take thefe journeys oftener than any other fet of 



4 men. 



