486 



PROVINCE OF GUIANNA. 



Between Macappa and North Cape a narrow channel is formed by the islands 

 which range along the coast ; and here is remarked a singular phenomenon, de- 

 nominated pororoca, (the same term we have already described as given to the 

 contention of the waters at the mouth of the Mearim, in the province of Maran- 

 ham,) which continues three days, at the periods of the change and full moon, 

 when the tides are at the highest. An immense volume of water, twelve to 

 fifteen feet in height, rolls from one beach to the other, followed by a second, 

 and third, and sometimes a fourth, of equal magnitude, with little interval, and 

 with such prodigious rapidity that it destroys every thing opposed to its over- 

 whelming course. The tide, in place of gradually rising in six hours, reaches 

 its greatest height in one or two minutes, with such a terrific noise that it is 

 heard seven or eight miles off. 



The island of Penitencia, called Baylique by the Portuguese, in consequence 

 of the tossing which the canoes here sustain from the sea, is six miles long, and 

 sixty south of North Cape. 



The islands of Croa are five in a file, separated by narrow channels, and lie 

 to the south-west of Baylique. The whole are flat, and covered with man- 

 groves, where there is an infinity of musquitos and insects. 



The river Nhamunda, by corruption Jamunda, divides this vast province into 

 eastern and western, serving also for a limit between the jurisdictions of the 

 ouvidores of Para and of Rio Negro. 



Rivers. — In the western part are, first, the Hyapuru and the Rio Negro ; 

 afterwards the Rio Branco (White River) ; the Matary, with two mouths ; the 

 Urubu, communicating with the river Aniba by the great lake Saraca, which is 

 near the Amazons, and is there discharged by six mouths. 



In the eastern part are the Trombetas, originally Oriximina, large, and enter- 

 ing the Amazons below Rio Negro ; the Gurupatuba ; the Anauirapucu, by 

 corruption Arannapucu, the Vaccarapy, and the Aruary, which enters the 

 ocean. 



The river Hyapura originates in the province of Popayan, and, after having 

 watered eleven hundred miles of country, running towards the south-east, form- 

 ing numerous islands of all dimensions, incorporates itself with the Amazons by 

 its several mouths. Its adjacent lands are flat, inundated, and bad : Caqueta 

 is its first name in the country where it rises. 



The Rio Negro rises also in the province of Popayan, to the north-east of 

 the Hyapura, with which it runs parallel an equal distance. Forty miles before 

 it enters the Amazons it is divided into two unequal branches. Condamine 



