31 FICTITIOUS LAKES AND SEAS. 



the Ami, and has taken the name of Parima. To follow this 

 metamorphosis in its progressive development, we must 

 compare the maps which have appeared since the voyage of 

 Baleigh till now. La Cruz, who has been copied by all the 

 modern geographers, has preserved the oblong form of the 

 lake Cassipa for his lake Parima, although this form is 

 entirely different from that of the ancient lake Parima. or 

 Bupuiiuwini, of which the great axis was directed from east 

 to west. The ancient lake (that of Hondius, Sanson, and 

 Coronelli) was also surrounded by mountains, and gave 

 birth to no river; while the lake Parima of La Cruz and the 

 modern geographers communicates with the Upper Orinoco, 

 as the Cassipa with the Lower Orinoco. 



I have stated the origin of the fable of the lake Cassipa, 

 and the influence it has had on the opinion that the lake 

 Parima is the source of the Orinoco. Let us now examine 

 what relates to this latter basin, this pretended ' interior 

 sea,' called Rupunuuini by the geographers of the sixteenth 

 century. In the latitude of four degrees or four degrees 

 and a-half, (in which direction unfortunately, south of Santo 

 Thome del Angostura to tha extent of eight degrees, no 

 astronomical observation has been made) is a long and 

 narrow Cordillera, that of Pacaraimo, Quimiropaca, and 

 Ucucuamo ; which, stretching from east to south-west, 

 unites the group of mountains of Parima to the mountains 

 of Dutch and French Guiana. It divides its waters be- 

 tween the Carony, the Bupunury or Bupunwini, and the 

 Bio Branco, and consequently between the valleys of the 

 Lower Orinoco, the Essequibo, and the Bio Negro. On the 

 north-west of the Cordillera de Pacaraimo, which has been 

 traversed but by a small number of Europeans (by the 

 German surgeon, Nicolas Hortsman, in 1739 ; by a Spanish 

 officer, Don Antonio Santos, in 1775 ; by the 'Portuguese 

 colonel, Barata, in 1791 ; and by several English settlers, in 

 1811), descend the Noeapra, the Paraguamusi, and the 

 Paragua, which fall into the Bio Carony ; on the north-east, 

 the Bupunuwini, a tributary stream of the Bio Essequibo. 

 Toward the south, the Tacutu and the Urariquera form 

 together the famous Bio Parima, or Bio Branco. 



This isthmus, between the branches of the Bio Essequibo 

 and the Bio Branco (that is, between the Bupunuwini on 



