329 



the Oroonoko and the Rio Negro. This ima- 

 ginary system is represented in the first edition* 

 of the fine map of America by d'Anville. It 

 thence results, that the Rio Negro separates 

 itself from the Oroonoko below the Great Cata- 

 racts ; and that, in order to reach the mouth of 

 the Guaviare, you must go up the Caqueta be- 

 yond the bifurcation, which gives birth to the 

 Rio Jupura. When M. de la Condamine learn- 

 ed, that the Oroonoko, far from having it's 

 source at the foot of the Andes de Pasto, came 

 from the back of the mountains of Cayenne, he 

 modified his ideas in a very ingenious manner. 

 The Rio Negro no longer issued from the Oroo- 

 noko ; the Guaviare, the Atabapo, the Cassiqui- 

 are, and the mouth of the Inirida (under the 

 name of the Iniricha, take nearly their true situ- 

 ations on the second map of d'Anville ; but the 

 third bifurcation of the Caqueta gives rise to the 

 Inirida and the Rio Negro. This system was 

 maintained by Father Caulin, marked upon the 

 map of La Cruz, and copied on all those, that 

 appeared up to the commencement of the 19th 

 century. The names of the Caqueta, the Oroo- 

 noko, and the Inirida, it is true, do not excite 

 that interest, and those historical remembrances, 

 that belong to the rivers of the interiour of Ni- 



* See above, p, 11. (Cartas de la Bibliotheque du Roi, No. 

 745.) 



