374 A V O Y A G E T O Book VI. 



the natural differences of time. But M. de la Con- 

 damine, with his ufual accuracy, as may be feen in 

 the narrative of his own voyage, obferved that the 

 flux and reflux perceived in the ocean, on any certain 

 day and hour, is different from that which is felt at 

 the fame day and hour, in the intermediate fpace be- 

 tween the mouth of the river and Pauxis, being ra- 

 ther the effect of the tides of the preceding days; 

 proportional to the difl:ance of the place from the 

 river's mouth ; for as the water of one tide cannot 

 flow two hundred leagues within the twelve hours, it 

 follows, that having produced its effedl to a determin- 

 ed diflance during the fpace of one day, and renew- 

 ing it in the following by the impulfe of the fucceed- 

 ing tides, it moves through that long fpace with the 

 ufual alternation in the hours of flood and ebb and 

 in feveral parts thefe hours coincide with thofe of the 

 flux and reflux of the ocean. 



After flowing through fuch a vafl extent of coun- 

 try^ receiving the tribute of other rivers precipitated 

 from the Cordilleras, or gliding in a more gentle 

 courfe from remote provinces ; after forming many 

 circuits, catarads, and fl:reights ; dividing itfelf in- 

 to various branches, forming a multitude of iflands 

 of different magnitudes, the Maranon at length, from 

 the mouth of the river Xingu, directs its courfe N. E. 

 and enlarging its channel in a prodigious manner, as 

 it were to facilitate its difcharge into the ocean, forms 

 in this ailonifhing fpace feveral very large and fertile 

 iQands-, of which the chief is that of Joanes or Ma- 

 rayo, formed by a branch of the great river which 

 feparates from it twenty-five leagues below the mouth 

 of the Xingu *, and diredling its courfe to the fouth- 

 ward, in a direction oppoiite to that of the principal 

 ftream^ opens a communication between the Mara- 

 non and the river of Dos Bocas, which has before 

 received the waters of the Guanapu and Pacayas, and 

 fiows into it through a mouth of above two leagues in 



breadth. 



