246 CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 



taken place in our geographical knowledge of the country 

 west of this valley between 61^ and 65J W. longitude. 

 The attempts repeatedly made by the Government of Spanish 

 Guiana, since the expeditions of Iturria and Solano, to reach 

 and to pass the Pacaraima mountains, have only produced 

 very inconsiderable results. When the Spaniards, in travel- 

 ling to the missions of the Catalonian Capuchin monks of 

 Barceloneta at the confluence of the Caroni and the Rio 

 Paragua, ascended the latter river, in going southward, to its 

 junction with the Paraguamusi, they founded at the site of 

 the latter junction the mission of Guirion, which at first 

 received the pompous name of Ciudad de Guirion. I place 

 it in about 4 J of North latitude. From thence the gover- 

 nor Centurion, stimulated by the exaggerated accounts given 

 by two Indian chiefs, Paranacare and Arimuicapi, of the 

 powerful nation of the Ipurucotos, to search for el Dorado, 

 prosecuted what were then called spiritual conquests still 

 farther, and founded beyond the Pacaraima mountains the 

 two villages of Santa Rosa arid San Bautista de Caudacacla ; 

 the former on the higher eastern bank of the Uraricapara, a 

 tributary of the Uraricuera which in the narrative of Rod- 

 riguez I find called Rio Curaricara ; and the latter six or 

 seven German (24 or 28 English) geographical miles farther 

 to the east south-east. The astronomer of the Portuguese 

 Boundary Commission, Don Antonio Pires de Sylva Pontes 

 Leme, captain of a frigate, and the captain of engineers, 

 Don Ricardo Franco d' Almeida de Serra, who between 1787 

 and 1804 surveyed with the greatest care the whole course 

 of the Rio Branco and its upper branches, call the western- 



