325 



still one of the nations that spread widest along 

 the northern bank of the Caqueta; it is not 

 surprising therefore, that this river received, 

 according* to Fray Pedro Simon, the name of 

 Rio Tama. The sources of the tributary streams 

 of the Caqueta lying very near those of the Gua- 

 viare, one of the largest tributary rivers of the 

 Oroonoko, led to the error entertained from 

 the beginning of the seventeeth century, that 

 the Caqueta (Rio de Iscance and Papamene), 

 the Guaviare (Guayare), and the Oroonoko, 

 were the same river. No person had descended 

 the Caqueta toward the Amazon, and recog- 

 nized, that the river called lower down Jupura, 

 is identically the same with the Caqueta. A 

 tradition preserved in our days among the inha- 

 bitants of those countries, according to which a 

 branch of the Caqueta, below the confluence of 

 the Caguan and Payoya, flows into the Inirida 

 and the Rio Negro, has no doubt contributed to 

 the opinion, that the Oroonoko rises on the 

 back of the mountains of Pasto. 



We have just seen, that it was supposed in 

 New Grenada, that the waters of the Caqueta, 

 like those of the Ariari, the Meta, and the 

 Apure, flowed toward the great basin of the 

 Oroonoko. If the direction of these tributary 

 streams had been observed with more attention, 

 it would have been perceived, that, notwith- 

 standing the general slope of the ground to- 



