38 2EEOES OF EARLY VOYAGEES. 



accurate ideas, would reproduce on their maps the Mar 

 Dorado or Mar Blanco. Thus, notwithstanding the numeroua 

 proofs which I have iurnished since my return from America, 

 of the non-existence of an inland sea the origin of the Ori- 

 noco, a map has been published in my name,* on which the 

 Laguna Parima figures anew. 



From the whole of these statements it follows, 1st, that 

 the Laguna Rupunuwini, or Parima of the voyage of Raleigh 

 and of the maps of llondius, is an imaginary lake, formed 

 by the lake Amucut and the tributary streams ol the Ura- 

 ricuera, which often overflow their banks ; 2ndly, that the 

 Laguna Parime of Surville's map is the lake Amucu, which 

 gives rise to the Rio Pirara and (conjointly with the Mahu, 

 the Tacutu, the Uraricuera, or Rio Parima, properly so 

 called) to the Rio Branco ; Brdly, that the Laguna Parime 

 of La Cruz is an imaginary swelling of the Rio Parime 

 (conlounded with the Orinoco) below the junction of the 

 Mahu with the Xurumu. The distance from the mouth of 

 the Mahu to that of the Tacutu is scarcely 4(X ; La Cruz 

 enlarges it to 7 of latitude. He calls the upper part of the 

 Rio Branco (that which receives the Mahu) Orinoco or 

 Purwmu. There can be no doubt of its being the Xurumu, 

 one of the tributary streams of the Tacutu, which is well 

 known to the inhabitants of the neighbouring fort of San 

 Joaquim. All the names that figure in the fable of El 

 Dorado are found in the tributary streams of the Rio 

 Branco. Slight local circumstances, joined to the remem- 

 brances of the salt lake of Mexico, more especially of the 

 celebrated lake Manoa in the Dorado des Omaguas, have 

 served to complete a picture created by the imagination of 

 Raleigh and his two lieutenants, Keymis and Masham. The 

 inundations of the Rio Branco, I conceive, may be compared 

 at the utmost to those of the Red River of Louisiana, 

 between Nachitoches and Cados, but not to the Laguna 

 de los Xarayes, which is a temporary swelling of the Rio 

 Paraguay. J 



* Carte de I'Amtrigue, dressSe sur les Observations de M. de Hum* 

 loldt, par Fried. (Vienna, 1818.) 



f This is the lake Amaca of Surville and La Cruau By a singular 

 mistake, the name of this lake is transformed to a village on Arrowsmith's 

 map. 



i Southey, vol. i, p. 130. These periodical overflowings of the Rio 



