328 



close of his days, suppressed* the bifurcation of 

 the Caqueta, to the great regret of la Conda- 

 mine-f ; made the Putumayo, the Jupura, and 

 the Rio Negro, entirely independant rivers ; 

 and, as if to banish all hope of communication 

 between the Oroonoko and the Rio Negro, figur- 

 ed a lofty chain of mountains between the two 

 rivers. Father FritzJ had before followed the 

 same system, which was believed to be the most 

 probable in the time of Hondius. 



The voyage of M. de la Condamine, which 

 has thrown so much light on different parts of 

 America, has embroiled all that is connected 

 with the courses of the Caqueta, the Oroonoko, 

 and the Rio Negro. This illustrious traveller 

 has well observed, it is true, that the Caqueta 

 (of Mocoa) was the river, which, in the Ama- 

 zon, bears the name of Jupura ; but he not only 

 adopted the hypothesis of Sanson, he even trip- 

 led the number of bifurcations of the Caqueta. 

 By the first, a branch (the Jaoya) of the Caque- 

 ta flows into the Putumayo ; a second forms the 

 Jupura and the Rio Paragua ; and by a third 

 the Rio Paragua is subdivided into two rivers., 



* Already in his map of 1722. 

 + M4m. de V Acad., 1745, p. 438. 



J See a manuscript map (Tabula geogrqfica del Rio Maran- 

 nori) of 1690, which I found among a collection of d'Anville's 

 maps, preserved at Paris in the archives of the ministry of 

 foreign affairs, No. 9545. 



