481 



having granted their request, these colonists ar- 

 rived at fort San Joaquim on the Rio Branco 

 in their boats *. We shall have to speak here- 

 after of this isthmus, or partly mountainous 

 partly marshy ground, where Keymis (the 

 author of the narrative of Raleigh's second 

 voyage) places el Dorado and the great city of 

 Manoa ; but which separates, as we now know 

 with certainty, the sources of the Carony, the 

 Rupimuri, and the Rio Branco, three tributary 

 streams of three different systems of rivers, the 

 Oroonoko, the Essequibo, and the Rio Negro, 

 or the Amazon. 



It results from what has been observed, that 

 the natives, who talked to Teixeira and Acunha 

 of the communication of two great rivers, de- 

 ceived themselves on the direction of the waters 

 of the Cassiquiare, or that Acunha misinter- 

 preted their words. The latter supposition is 

 so much the more probable, as in making use of 

 an interpreter, like the Spanish traveller, I often 

 experienced myself how easy it is to mistake 

 respecting branches which a river sends forth 

 or receives ; or, on the direction of a tributary 

 stream which follows the Sun, or which moves 

 in " opposition to the Sun." I suspect the 



* Manuscript notes, that were obligingly communicated 

 to me by the Chevalier de Brito, ambassador from Portugal 

 at Paris in 1817. 



VOL. V. 2 I 



