370 ' A VOYAGE TO Book VL 

 ble, in the ground. If this declivity be not very- 

 great, and the river large and deep, it will eafily be- 

 come navigable every where^ with a free pafTage from 

 one arm into the other. And in this manner the 

 marflies are formed in a level country, as we have 

 particularly remarked in the coaft of Tumbez : for 

 the fea-water on the flood running into thefe various 

 mouths, which fometimes are 20 leagues diftant or 

 more, a veflel enters one arm by the favour of the 

 tide ; but coming to a place where the foil rifes, the 

 ftream runs again ft her, being the water which the 

 fame flood had impelled through another channel. 

 Thus the ebb caufes the waters to feparate at that 

 point ; and each portion of water takes the fame courfe 

 at going out as at its entrance •, yet the place where 

 the feparation is made is not left dry. But even 

 though the place where the waters of the river Ca- 

 quefa are feparated fliould not be level, or nearly 

 horizontal, but lie on a conflderable declivity ^ yet if 

 this fall be equal on both fldes, one part of the v^aters 

 may take its courfe to the Oronoque, and the other 

 to the Negro, without any other confequence than that 

 the great rapidity would render them impradicable 

 to navigation but this has nothing to do with the 

 divifion of the waters, it being no more than forming 

 an ifiand either large or fmall. 



From the province of Quito there are three ways 

 to the river Maranon but all extremely trouble- 

 fome and fatiguing, from the nature of the climate, 

 and being full of rocks, that a great part of the dif- 

 tance mufl: be travelled on foot ; for being fo little 

 frequented, no care has been taken to mend them, 

 whence they are even more dangerous than the others 

 in South America, of which we have given a defcrip- 

 tion. 



The firfl: of thefe roads, which is the neareft to the 

 town of Qiiito, runs through Baza and Archidona 

 where you embark on the river Napo. The fecond 



is 



