42 EXPEDITION OF HEEEEEA. 



de Ordaz received from the natives the first idea of civilized 

 nations, who inhabited the table-lands of the Andes of New 

 Granada ; " of a very powerful prince with one eye (Indio 

 tuerto), and of animals less than stags, but fit for riding 

 like Spanish horses." Ordaz had no idea that these animald 

 were llamas (ovejas del Peru). Must we admit that llamas, 

 which were used in the Andes to draw the plough and as 

 beasts of burden, but not for riding, were already common 

 on the north and east of Quito ? I find that Orellana saw 

 these animals at the river Amazon, above the confluence of 

 the Bio Negro, consequently in a climate very different 

 from that of 'the table-land of the Andes. The table of an 

 army of Omaguas mounted on llamas served to embellish 

 the account given by the fellow-travellers of Felipe de Urre 

 ot their adventurous expedition to the Upper Caqueta. 

 "We cannot be sufficiently attentive to these traditions, 

 which seem to prove that the domestic animals of Quito 

 and Peru had already begun to descend the Cordilleras, and 

 spread themselves by degrees in the eastern regions of 

 South America. 



Herrera, the treasurer of the expedition of Ordaz, was 

 sent in 1553, by the governor G-eronimo de Ortal, to pursue 

 the discovery of the Orinoco and the Meta. He lost nearly 

 thirteen months between Punta Barina and the confluence 

 of the Carony in constructing flat-bottomed boats, and 

 making the preparations indispensable for a long voyage. 

 We cannot read without astonishment the narrative of 

 those daring enterprises, in which three or four hundred 

 horses were embarked, to be put ashore whenever cavalry 

 could act on one of the banks. We find in the expedition 

 of Herrera the same stations which we already knew ; the 



denominations. If other names be added, they change in every province 

 Thus the Rio Turiva, near the Encaramada, has five names in the different 

 parts of its course. The Upper Orinoco, or Paragua, is called by the 

 Maquiritares (near Esmeralda) Maraguaca, on account of the lofty 

 mountains of this name near Duida. Gili, vol. i, p. 22 and 364. 

 Caulin, p. 75.) In most of the names of the rivers of America we recog- 

 nize the root water. Thus yacu in the Peruvian, and veni in the May- 

 pure tongue*, signify water and river. In the Lule dialect 1 find fo, 

 water ; foyavalto, a river ; jfoysi, a lake ; as in Persian, ab is water; abi 

 frat, the river Euphrates ; abdan, a lake. The root water is preserved in 

 the derivatives. 



