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those who come from the territory of the whites, 

 from advancing toward the west. How could 

 we hope to pass a point, where the commander 

 of the Rio Negro, don Francisco Bovadilla was 

 stopped, when, accompanied by his soldiers, he 

 tried to penetrate beyond the Gehette ? The 

 carnage then made among the natives has ren- 

 dered them more distrustful, and more averse 

 to the inhabitants of the missions. It must be 

 remembered, that the Oroonoko had hitherto 

 offered to geographers two distinct problems, 

 alike important, the situation of it's sources, and 

 the mode of it's communication with the Amazon. 

 The latter of these problems formed the object 

 of the journey, which I have described : with 

 respect to the discovery of the sources, this re- 

 mains to be completed by the Spanish and Por- 

 tugueze governments. A small detachment of 

 soldiers, proceeding from Angostura or the Rio 

 Negro, would be sufficient to resist the Guaha- 

 riboes, the Guayras, and the Caribbees, whose 

 force and numbers are alike exaggerated in the 

 missions. This expedition might proceed either 

 from Esmeralda toward the east, or by the Rio 

 Caroni and the Paragua toward the south-west, 

 or lastly, by the Rio Padaviri, or the Rio Branco 

 and the Urariquera, toward the north-west. As 

 the Oroonoko is probably not known near its 

 origin by this name, or by that of Paragua *, the 



* This is the Indian name of the Upper Oroonoko. (See 



