Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 365 



brooks, and confequently difcharge a quantity of 

 water, may have an equal claim to be called the prin- 

 cipal fource. But, without confidently determining 

 this intricate point, I ftiall firit confider the fources 

 of thofe which run into it from the more remote 

 diftances, and next thofe which precipitate themfelves 

 down feveral cafcades formed by the craggs of the 

 Andes, and, after being augmented by others it re- 

 ceives, join the Maranon in a more copious ftream ; 

 leaving it to the reader to determine which is the ori- 

 ginal fource. 



The moft received opinion, concerning the re- 

 moteft fource of the river Maranon, is that which 

 places it in the jurifdidtion of Tarma, illiiing from 

 the lake of Lauricocha, near the city of Guanuco, in 

 1 1 deg. S. lat. whence it diredis its courfe S. almoft 

 to 12 deg. through the country belonging to this 

 jurifdidlion ; and, forming infenfibly a circuit, flows 

 eaftward through the country of Juaxa ; where, after 

 being precipitated from the eaft fide of the Cordillera 

 of the Andes, proceeds northward ; and, leaving the 

 jurifdidions of Mayabamba and Chacha-poyas, it 

 continues its courfe to the city of Jaen, the lat. of 

 which in the foregoing chapter has been placed in 5 

 deg. 2 1 min. There, by a fecond circuit, it runs to- 

 ward the E. in a continual direction ; till at length it 

 falls into the ocean, where its mouth is of fuch an 

 enormous breadth, that it reaches from the equinodial 

 to beyond the firft deg. of north lat. Its diftance 

 from Lauricocha lake to Jaen, its windings included, 

 is about 200 leagues and this city being 30 deg, 

 to the W. of its mouth, is 600 leagues from it, which, 

 'with the feveral circuits and windings, may without 

 cxcefs be computed at 900 fuch leagues : fo that its 

 whole courfe, from Lauricocha to its influx into the 

 ocean, is at lead iioo leagues. 



Yet the branch which ifFues from Lauricocha is 

 not the only one flowing from thefe parts into the Ma- 

 ranon ; 



