201 



confluence of three great rivers ; the Oroonoko, 

 the Guaviare, and the Atabapo. It's situation 

 is similar to that of Saint Lewis or of New Ma- 

 drid, at the junctions of the Mississipi with the 

 Missouri and the Ohio. In proportion as com- 

 merce grows brisk in these countries traversed 

 by immense rivers, the towns situate at their 

 confluence will necessarily become the stations 

 of boats, depositaries of merchandize, and real 

 centres of civilization. Father Gumilla confesses, 

 that in his time no person had any knowledge 

 of the course of the Oroonoko above the mouth 

 of the Guaviare. He adds with simplicity, that 

 he was forced to address himself to the inhabi- 

 tants of Timana and of Pasto, to obtain some 

 vague notions of the Upper Oroonoko*. We 



* Los restantes Rios de que se forma el Orinoco (arriba de la 

 boca del Guabiare) todavia no se han registrado : y solo los de- 

 marco en mi plan por las noticias acquiridas de los habitadores de 

 Timana y Pasto de donde el principal y los Rios accessorios des- 

 cienden. (Gum., Orinoco ill., 1745, torn, i, p. 52.) The first 

 edition of this work is in 1741, and it must be by error, that 

 the approbation of the censor of the Company, Antonio de 

 Goyeneche, is dated the 14th of July, 1731. The fathers 

 Gumilla and Rotella began their first establishments in 

 1733 (Gili, vol. i, p. 60. Gum. vol. i, p. 209, 239, and 285 5 

 vol. ii, p. 96.) j consequently the manuscript of the Orinoco 

 illustrado could not have been finished in 1731. This date is 

 important, because those of several geographical discoveries 

 depend on it. I must observe on this occasion, that father 

 Gumilla was only four years on the banks of the Oroonoko, 

 not thirty, whatever the French translator of the Orinoco 



