495 



the missionaries*, who were then, as they are 

 at present, the only geographers of th^ most 

 inland parts of the continents. He erred 3*5° 

 of latitude on the confluence of the Cassiquiare 

 with the Rio Negro, but he then indicated with 

 sufficient precision the situation of the Atabapo, 

 and of t he woody isthmusJby which I passed from 

 Javita to the banks of X the Rio Negro. The 

 maps of La Cruz Olmedilla^ and of Surville;*;, 



* According to the annals of Berredo, it would appear, 

 that from the year 1739, the military incursions from the 

 Rio Negro to the Cassiquiare had confirmed the Portu- 

 gueze jesuits in the opinion, that there was a communication 

 between the Amazon and the Oroonoko. Southey, vol. i, p. 

 658. 



t The basis of all the new maps of America has been that of 

 La Cruz. (Mapo geogrqfico de America meridional par D. Juan 

 de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geogr. pens, de S. M., 1775.) 

 The original edition, which I possess, is the more rare, the 

 plates having been broken, it is commonly believed, by order 

 of a minister of the colonies, who feared, that the map was 

 but too exact. I can affirm, that the map does not merit 

 this reproach, except on a small number of points. 



X Fray Antonio Caulin, an Observantin monk, accompa- 

 nied the expedition of Ituriaga and Solano. We see in the 

 ninth chapter of the first book of his 1 listeria corogrqfico de 

 Nueva Andalucia, that he had constructed two maps in 1756, 

 one of which comprehended the Lower Oroonoko from it's 

 mouth as far as Atures ; and the other, the Upper Oroo- 

 noko, the Cassiquiare, and the Rio Negro. He wished to 

 separate what he had verified with his own eyes, from what 

 was only founded on mere report. Surville, availing himself 

 of the two manuscript maps of Caulin, and mingling with 



