501 



pass over by an artificial canal, will fix the atten- 

 tion of commercial Europe. The Cassiquiare, 

 as broad as the Rhine, and the course of which 

 is one hundred and eighty miles in length, will 

 no longer form in vain a navigable canal be- 

 tween two basins of rivers, which have a surface 

 of one hundred and ninety thousand square 

 leagues. The grain of New Grenada will be 

 carried to the banks of the Rio Negro ; boats 

 will descend from the sources of the Napo and 

 the Ucuyabe, from the Andes of Quito and of 

 Upper Peru, to the mouths of the Oroonoko^ a 

 distance which equals that from Tombuctoo to 

 Marseilles. A country nine or ten times larger 

 than Spain, and enriched with the most varied 

 productions, is navigable in every direction, by 

 the medium of the natural canal of the Cassi- 

 quiare, and the bifurcation of the rivers. This 

 phenomenon, which will one day be so impor- 

 tant for the political connections of nations, 

 unquestionably deserved to be carefully exa- 

 mined. 



