333 



three leagues distant from those of the Guainia^ 

 where a portage might be established. Father 

 Caulin learned at Cabruta, from an Indian chief, 

 named Tapo, that the Inirida approaches very 

 near the Patavita (Paddavida, on the map of 

 La Cruz), which is a tributary stream of the 

 Rio Negro. The natives of the banks of the 

 Upper Guainia know nothing of this name, or of 

 that of a lake (Laguna del Rio Negro), which is 

 ound on the ancient Portugueze maps 5 *. This 

 pretended Rio Patavita is probably nothing 

 more than the Guainia of the Indians of Maroa ; 

 since, as long as geographers believed in the bi- 

 furcation of the Caqueta-f-, they made the Rio 

 Negro rise from that branch, and from a river 

 which they called Patavita^. According to the 

 accounts of the natives, the mountains, at the 

 sources of the Inirida and the Guainia, do not 

 exceed the height of Baraguan, which I found to 

 be one hundred and twenty toises. 



The manuscript Portugueze maps§, construct- 



* See also the Amerique Meridiondle of M. Brue, 1816. 



+ La Condamine in the M6m. de I'Acad., 1745, p. 451 j 

 and see j at VAmazone, 1745, p. 123. D'Anville in the Jour- 

 nal desSavans, March 1750, p. 185. 



X The confluence of this supposed branch with the Pata- 

 vita, according to M. Bonne, whose astronomical deductions 

 (where he had good data) are very judicious, is in 1* 30' of 

 north latitude, and 75° of west longitude. (Atlas de Raynal, 

 No. 81.) 



§ In studying these maps, which are very instructive 



