THE SEREAS DO TELnO. 



the missionaries Acaray and Tumueuraque. Those two 

 names are found on our maps between 0^- and 3' north 

 latitude. Raleigh first made known, in 1596, the system ot 

 the mountains of Parime, between the sources of the Rio 

 Carony and the Essequibo, by the name of Wacarima 

 (Pacarima), and the Jesuits Acunha and Artedia furnished, 

 in 1639, the first precise notions of that part of this system 

 which extends from the meridian of Essequibo to that of 

 Oyapoc. There they place the mountains of Tguaracuru 

 and Paraguaxo, the former of which gives birth to a ' gold 

 river,' (Rio de oro), a tributary of the Curupatuba* ; and 

 according to the assertion of the natives, subterraneous 

 noises are sometimes heard from the latter. The ridge of 

 this chain of mountians, which runs in a direction S. 85 E. 

 from the peak of Duida, near the Esmeralda (lat. 3 19'), to 

 the rapids of the Rio Manaye, near Cape Nord (lat. 1 

 50'), divides, in the parallel of 2, the northern sources of 

 the Essequibo, the Maroni, and the Oyapoc, from the 

 southern sources of the Rio Trombetas, Curupatuba, and 

 Paru. The most southern spurs of this chain approach 

 nearer to the Amazon, at the distance of fifteen leagues. 

 These are the first heights which we perceived after having 

 left Xeberos and the mouth of the Huallaga. They are 

 constantly seen in navigating from the mouth of the Rio 

 Topayo towards that of Paru, from the town of Santarem to 

 Almeirim. The peak Tripoupou is nearly in the meridian 

 of the former of those towns, and is celebrated among the 

 Indians of Upper Maroni. It is said that farther east- 

 ward, at Melga9o, the Serras do Velho and do Paru are 

 still distinguished in the horizon. The real boundaries of 

 this series of sources of the Rio Trombetas are better 

 known southward than northward, where a mountainous 



* When we know that in Tamauac gold is called caricvri; in Carib, 

 caricura : in Peruvian, cori (curi), we easily recognize in the names 

 of (he mountains and rivers (Yguara-curu, Cura-patuba), which we 

 have just marked, the indication of auriferous soil. Such is the 

 analogy of the imported roots in the American tongues, which otherwise 

 differ altogether from each other, that 300 leagues west of the mountain 

 Ygaracuru, on the hanks of the Caqueta, Pedro de Ursua heard of the 

 province of Caricuri, rich in gold washings. The Curupatuba falls into 

 the Amazon near the Villa of Monte Alegre, N. E. of the mouth of the 

 Kio To^ayos. 



