CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 209 



tation, refreshes and strengthens the mind ; in the same 

 manner as our spirits, when oppressed with the actual 

 present, love to escape awhile, and to delight themselves 

 with the earlier youthful age of mankind, and with the 

 manifestations of its simple grandeur. 



Favouring winds and currents bear the voyager westward 

 across the peaceful Ocean arm, ( l ) which fills the wide 

 valley between the New Continent and western Africa. 

 Before the American shore rises from the liquid plain, he 

 hears the tumult of contending, mutually opposing, and 

 inter-crossing waves. The mariner unacquainted with the 

 region would surmise the vicinity of shoals, or a wonderful 

 outbreak of fresh springs in the middle of the ocean, ( 2 ) 

 like those in the neighbourhood of Cuba. On approaching 

 nearer to the granitic coast of Guiana, he becomes sensible 

 that he has entered the wide embouchure of a mighty river, 

 which issues forth like a shoreless lake and covers the 

 ocean around with fresh water. The green, and on the 

 shallows the milk-white, tint of the fresh water contrasts 

 with the indigo-blue colour of the sea, and marks with 

 sharp outlines the limits of the river waves. 



The name Orinoco, given to the river by its first dis- 

 coverers, and which probably originated in some confusion 

 of language, is unknown in the interior of the country. 

 Nations in a rude state designate by proper geographical 

 names only such objects as can be confounded with each 

 other. The Orinoco, the Amazons, and the Magdalena 

 rivers, are called simply The River," or " Tiie Great River," 

 or " The Great Water /' whilst those who dwell on their 



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