202 



should not now seek for information in the 

 Andes of Popayan respecting a river, that 

 rises on the western back of the mountains of 

 Cayenne. Father Gumilla did not confound, 

 as he has been falsely accused of doing, the 

 sources of the Guaviare with those of the Oroo- 

 noko ; but, ignorant of that part of the latter 

 river which runs from east to west, from Esme- 

 ralda toward San Fernando, he supposes, that, 

 in order to ascend the Oroonoko above the cata- 

 racts and the mouths of the Vichada and the 

 Guaviare, it is necessary to proceed in a south- 

 west direction. Geographers at that period had 

 placed the sources of the Oroonoko near those 

 of the Putumayo and the Caqueta, on the east- 

 ern declivity of the Andes of Pasto and of Popa- 

 yan, consequently, according to my observations 

 of the longitude* on the back of the Cordilleras 

 and at Esmeralda, two hundred and forty 

 leagues distant from their true situation. The 

 inaccurate ideas which La Condamine had 

 given of the branchings of the Caqueta, which 

 seemed to corroborate the hypothesis of Sanson, 

 have contributed to errors that have been pro- 



illustrado {Gilt, torn, i, p. 26.) may pretend. In Europe, 

 under the vague names of the missions of the Oroonoko are 

 confounded parts of New-Granada the most remote from 



the river. 



* At Pasto, and at Esmeralda. 



