EARLY EXPEDITIONS. 49 



north of the Amazon. They are three powerful nations, 

 the latter of which, stretching toward the west along the 

 banks of the Guape or Uaupe, had been already mentioned in 

 the voyages of Quesada and Huten. These two conquista- 

 dores, alike celebrated in the history of America, reached by 

 different roads the llanos of San Juan, then called Valle dc 

 Nuestra Senora. Hernan Perez de Quesada (1541) passed 

 the Cordilleras of Cundirumarca, probably between the 

 Paramos of Chingasa and Suma Paz ; while Felipe de 

 Huten, accompanied by Pedro de Limpias (the same who 

 had carried to Venezuela the first news of Dorado from the 

 table-land of Bogota), directed his course from north to 

 south, by the road which Speier had taken to the eastern 

 side of the mountains. Huten left Coro, the principal seat 

 of the German factory or company of Welser, when Henry 

 Kcmboldt was its director. After having traversed (1541) 

 the plains of Casanare, the Meta, and the Caguan, he 

 arrived at the banks of the Upper Guaviare (Guayuare), a 

 river which was long believed to be the source of the 

 Orinoco, and the mouth of which I saw in passing by San 

 Fernando de Atabapo to the Rio Negro. Not far from the 

 right bank of the Guaviare, Huten entered Macatoa, the 

 city of the Guapes. The people there were clothed, 

 the fields appeared well cultivated ; everything denoted a 

 degree of civilization unknown in the hot region of America 

 which extends to the east of the Cordilleras. Speier, in his 

 expedition to the Eio Caqueta and the province of Papa- 

 mene, had probably crossed the Guaviare far above Macatoa, 

 before the junction of the two branches of this river, the 

 Ariari and the Guayavero. Huten was told, that on adranc- 

 ing more to the south-east he would enter the territory of 

 the great nation of the Omaguas, the priest-king of which 

 was called Quareca, and which possessed numerous herds of 

 llamas. These traces of cultivation these ancient resem- 

 blances to the table-land of Quito appear to me very 

 remarkable. It has already been said above, that Orellana 

 saw llamas at the dwelling of an Indian chief on the banks 

 of the Amazon, and that Ordaz had heard mention made of 

 them in the plains of Meta. 



I pause where ends the domain of geography, and shall 

 not follow Huten in the description either of that town of 



VOL. in. E 



