ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 245 



the circumstances which gave occasion to the fiction of the 

 Lake Parime ; and Surville's map, which accompanies his 

 work, not only restores this lake under the name of the 

 White Sea and of the Mar Dorado, but also adds another 

 lake, from which, partly through lateral outlets, the Orinoco, 

 the Siapa, and the Ocamo issue. I was able to satisfy 

 myself on the spot of the fact, well known in the missions., 

 that Don Jose Solano went indeed beyond the cataracts of 

 Atures and Maypures, but not beyond the confluence of the 

 Guaviare and the Orinoco, in lat, 4.3' and long. 68.09'; 

 that the instruments of the Boundary Expedition were 

 not carried either to the Isthmus of the Pimichin and the 

 Rio Negro, or to the Cassiquiare; and that even on the 

 Upper Orinoco they were not taken above the mouth of the 

 Atabapo. This extensive country, in which previous to my 

 journey no exact observations had been attempted, had been 

 traversed since the time of Solano only by a few soldiers 

 sent in search of discoveries; and Don Apolinario de la 

 Puente (whose journals I obtained from the archives of the 

 province of Quiros), had collected, without critical discrimi- 

 nation, from the lying tales told by Indians, whatever could 

 flatter the credulity of the governor Centurion. No member 

 of the Expedition had seen any lake, and Don Apolinario 

 had not advanced farther than the Cerro Yumariquin and 

 the Gehette. 



Having now established throughout the extensive district, 

 to which it is desired to direct the inquiring zeal of travellers, 

 a dividing line bounding the basin of the Rio Branco, it still 

 remains to remark, that for a century past no advance has 



