330 



gritia ; but the varions combinations of the geo- 

 graphers of the New Continent recal to mind 

 the strange manner, in which the courses of the 

 Niger, the White Nile, the Gambaro, the Jolliba, 

 and the Zaire, have been traced. From year to 

 year, the domain of hypotheses is lessened ; pro- 

 blems are better defined ; and that ancient part 

 of geography, which might be called speculative, 

 not to say conjectural, is circumscribed within 

 narrower limits. 



It is not therefore on the banks of the Caque- 

 ta, but on those of the Guainia or Rio Negro, 

 that any positive notion can be acquired res- 

 pecting the sources of the last-mentioned river. 

 The Indians who inhabit the missions of Maroa, 

 Tomo, and San Carlos, have no knowledge of 

 an upper communication* between the Guainia 

 and the Jupura. I measured it's breadth oppo- 

 site the little fort of Saint Augustin, and found 

 it was-f- 292 toises ; it's mean breadth, near 



* Father Caulin makes the strange conjecture, that the 

 upper part of the Rio Negro has received the name of Ca- 

 queta from the Spanish Americans, because it has been con- 

 founded with another Rio Negro (Rio de Caguesa), that rises 

 near the village of Caquesa, east of Santa-Fe de Bogota, 

 and forms the Rio Meta, after having joined the Umadea. 

 (Hist, corogr., p. 82.) 



+ Basis 212 metres, angles 90° and 69° 36'. The breadth 

 of the river is 570 metres, or 682 varas. This is three times 

 the breadth of the Seine near the Garden of Plants, at 

 Paris, 



