OEIOIN OF THE NAME ORINOCO. 41 



north-west, led Ordaz to the coast of Paria, where in the 

 territory of the cacique Yuripari (Uriapari, Viapari), Sedeno 

 had constructed the Casa faerie de Paria. This post being 

 very near the mouth of the Orinoco, the Mexican Conquis- 

 tador resolved to attempt an expedition on this great river. 

 Hi- sojourni-d first at Carao (Caroa, Carora), a large Indian 

 village, which appears to me to have been a little to the 

 of the confluence of the Carony ; he then went up the 

 Cabruta (Cabuta, Cabritu), and to the mouth of the Meta 

 (Metacuyu), where he found great difficulty in passing his 

 boats through the Raudal of Cariven. The Aruacas, whom 

 Ordnz employed as guides advised him to go up the Meta; 

 where, on advancing towards the west, they asserted he 

 would find men clothed, and gold in abundance. Ordaz 

 pursued in preference the navigation of the Orinoco, but 

 the cataracts of Tabaje (perhaps even those of the Atures) 

 compelled him to terminate his discoveries. 



It is worthy of remark, that in this voyage, far anterior 

 to that of Orellana, and consequently the greatest which 

 the Spaniards had then performed on a river of the New 

 World, the name of the Orinoco was for the first time 

 heard. Ordaz, the leader of the expedition, affirms, that 

 the river, from its mouth as far as the confluence oi the 

 Mi-ta, is called Uriaparia, but that above this confluence it 

 bears the name of Orinucu. This word (formed analo- 

 gously with the words Tamanacu, Otomacu, Sinarucu) is, in 

 fact, of the Tamanac tongue ; and, as the Tamanacs dwell 

 south-east ol Encaramada, it is natural that the conquista- 

 dores heard the actual name of the river only on drawing 

 the Kio Meta.* On this last tributary stream .Diego 



* Gi/i, vol. iii, p. 381. The following are the most ancient names of 

 the Orinoco, known to the natives near its mouth, and which historians 

 give us altered by the double fault of pronunciation and orthography; 

 Yuyapari, Yjiipari, Huriaparia, Urapari, Viapari, Rio de Paria. 

 The Tamanac word Oiinucu was disfigured by the Dutch pilots into 

 Worinoque. The Otomacs say, Joga-apurura, (great river) ; the Cab res 

 and Guaypunabis, Paragua, Bazagua Parana, three words signifying 

 great water, river, sea. That part of the Orinoco oetween the Apure and 

 the Guaviare is often denoted by the name of Baraguan. A famous 

 trait, which we have described above, bears also this name, which is no 

 dmi I; t a corruption of the word Paragua. Great rivers in every tone are 

 called by the dwellers on their banks 'the river,' without any particular 



