278 The Andes and the Amazon. 



telnau (1846), Herndon and Gibbon (1851), and Marcoy 

 (1867), who came down through Eeru, and a Spanish com- 

 mission (Ahnagro, Spada, Martinez, and Isern), who made 

 the Xapo transit in 1865. To Spix and Martins (1820), 

 Bates and Wallace (1848-1857), Azevedo and Pinto (1862- 

 1864), and Agassiz (1865), the world is indebted for the 

 most scientific surveys of the river in Brazil. 



Such is the Amazon, the mightiest river in the world, 

 rising amid the loftiest volcanoes on the globe, and flowing 

 through a forqst unparalleled in extent. "It only wants 

 (wrote Father Acuna), in order to surpass the Ganges, Eu- 

 phrates, and the IN^ile in felicity, that its source should be 

 in Paradise." As if one name were not sufficient for its 

 grandeur, it has three appellations : Maranon, Solimoens, 

 and Amazon ; the first applied to the part in Peru, the 

 second to the portion between Tabatinga and Manaos, and 

 the third to all below the Bio Negro.* We have no 

 proper conception of the vast dimensions of the thousand- 

 armed river till we sail for weeks over its broad bosom, be- 



* The upper part of the Maranon, from its source to Jaen, is sometimes 

 called theTunguragua. Solimoens is now seldom heard ; but, instead, Middle 

 Amazon, or simply Amazon. The term Alto Amazonas or High Amazon 

 is also applied to all above the Negi'O. Maranon, says Velasco, derives its 

 name from the circumstance that a soldier, sent by Pizarro to discover the 

 sources of the Rio Fiura, having beheld the mighty stream from the neigh- 

 borhood of Jaen, and, astonished to behold a sea of fresh water, exclaimed, 

 ' ' Hac mare an non ?" Orellana's pretended fight with a nation of female war- 

 riors gave rise to the Portuguese name of the river, Amazonas (anglicized • 

 Amazon), after the mythical women in C'appadocia, who are sa,id to have burnt 

 off their right breasts that they might use the bow and javelin with more skill 

 and force, and hence their name, 'Ajua^oi^fc, from a and fia^og. Orellana's story 

 probably grew out of the fact that the men wear long tunics, part the hair in 

 the middle, and, in certain tribes, alone wear ornaments. Some derive the 

 name from the Indian word amassona, boat-destroyer. The old name, Orel- 

 lana, after the discoverer, is obsolete, as also the Indian term Parana-tinga, 

 or King of Waters. In ordinary conversation it is designated as the river, 

 in distinction from its tributaries. ' ' In all parts of the world (says Hum- 

 boldt), the largest rivers are called by those who dwell on their banks. The 

 River, without any distinct and peculiar appellation." 



