14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



Interesting" observations on the topoj:^raphy of the coast northward 

 of the mouth of the Amazon, or Maranon, are contained in the legend 

 placed on the coast of the " tierra de paragotos ^ amigos de Arua- 

 cas":* " toda esta costa hasta la ysla dela trinjdad como corre es 

 baxos de arena y lama, y aneg'adi zos. 20 leguas la tierra adetro. q[ue] 

 no ay puerto " p[ar]a nauio grande. ni au[n] p[ar]a verga-[n]tin 

 sino co[n] grafn] difficultad " (" Along- this coast as far as the island 

 of Trinidad, there are shallows of sand and mud, and swamps, 

 extending over twenty leagues inland ; there are no seaports for 

 large vessels, and even small ones can enter only with great diffi- 

 culty"). 



" Guyana, ay oro guanj " (" Guyane. There is gold guani [low 

 carat] "), reads a legend jilaced in the valley formed by two short 

 chains of mountains situated between the rivers Cuyramo and Caroni, 

 two s(nithern tributaries of the Orinoco. 



About four tlcgrees north a long chain of mountains runs from the 

 Orinoco uninterrupted, in a southeasterly direction across the inte- 

 rior, almost to the northern mouth of the Amazon. 



The region where on other maps is generally shown the legendary 

 lake of JNIanoa, is here occupied by the following inscription: 



" esta sierra vicnc del reyno y del pern es alia en el peru rica de 

 plata en el reyno de oro. y por acjui esta lo cjue] dice[n] el dorado " 

 ("This chain of mountains extends from the kingdom [of New 

 Granada] and from Peru; in Peru it is rich in silver; and in the 

 kingdom it is rich in gold ; and this is what they call El-Dorado "). 



This strange geographical conception, a result of the influence of 

 the Indian legend on early American cartography, prevails on most 

 maps made in the seconti half of the sixteenth century.* 



' Oto is the typical terminatitm of Carib clan-names ; cf . Cumanag-oto ; 

 Puruc-oto and many others. 



" " Arruans," as quoted by Goeldi, is incorrect; cf. " Memorias do Museu 

 Paraense de Historia Nat. e Ethnographia." I. " Escavagoes archeologicas em 

 1895." [Para] 1900, p. 34, 2d ed.. Para, 1905, 1. c. 



Goeldi is a genuine representative of the Tupi-mania. 



" Therefore the stereotyped observations of " anegadizos " " no visto " " visto 

 de lexos " on the early American maps. 



* And even on several original charts of the seventeenth century, as on those 

 made by the brothers Joao and Pedro Teixeira. The most interesting graphic 

 representation of El-Dorado appears on a manuscript chart of the lower 

 course of the Amazon River, drawn by one of the Teixeira, about 1625 to 

 1630. The photographs in original size of that as- yet unpublished chart are 

 preserved in the SchuUer Collection at the Library of Congress, Washington. 

 Neither of the modern bibliographers furnishes exact data on these two 

 Portuguese cartographers. 



