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means of having your canoe drawn over land 

 in the course of four days to Canno Pimichin. 

 If it be not broken to pieces, you will descend 

 the Rio Negro without any obstacle (from north- 

 west to south-east) as far as the little fort of San 

 Carlos; you will go up the Cassiquiare (from 

 south to north), and then return to San Fer- 

 nando in a month, descending the Upper Oroo- 

 noko from east to west." Such was the plan 

 traced for our navigation, and which we exe- 

 cuted, not without suffering, but without dan- 

 ger, and with facility, in the space of thirty- 

 three days. The sinuosities in this labyrinth 

 of rivers are such, that, without the aid of the 

 itinerary map which I traced, it would be almost 

 impossible to form an idea of the road by which 

 we went from the coast of Caraccas, through 

 the inland country, to the limits of the Capi- 

 tania General of Grand Para. I must remind 

 those who disdain to fix their eyes on maps 

 filled with names difficult for the memory to 

 retain, that the Oroonoko runs from it's source, 

 or at least from Esmeralda, as far as San Fer- 

 nando de Atabapo, from east to west ; that from 

 San Fernando, where the junction of the Gua- 

 viare and the Atabapo takes place, as far as the 

 mouth of the Rio Apure, it flows from south to 

 north, forming the Great Cataracts ; and, final- 

 ly, that from the mouth of the Apure as far as 

 Angostura and the coasts of the Ocean it's 



