689 



vented by a heavy storm of rain. As the sky 

 became serene again in the afternoon, we went 

 to rest that night on a vast beach, on the south- 

 ern bank of the Oroonoko, nearly in the meri- 

 dian of the little town of Muitaco, or Real 

 Corona. I found the latitude by three stars * 

 to be 8° 0' 26", and the longitude 67° 5' 19". 

 When the Observantin monks in 1752 made their 

 first entradas on the territory of the Caribbees, 

 they constructed on this spot a small fort, or 

 casafuerte. The proximity of the lofty moun- 

 tains of Araguacais renders Muitaco one of the 

 most healthy places on the Lower Oroonoko. 

 There Yturriaga took up his abode in 1756, to 

 repose himself after the fatigues of the expedition 

 of the boundaries ; and, as he attributed his re- 

 covery to this hot rather than humid climate, the 

 town, or more properly the village, of Real Co- 

 rona took the name of pueblo del Puerto sano. 

 In going down the Oroonoko more to the east, 

 we left the mouth of the Rio Pao on the north, 

 and that of the Arui on the south. The latter 

 river is somewhat considerable, and is often 

 mentioned by Raleigh. Geographers have long 

 made the Aroy or Arvi ( Arui), the Caroli 



* See my Obs. Astr., yol.-i, p. 247. The latitude of Real 

 Corona is consequently near 70° 59' 20''. This result accords 

 accidentally, within a few seconds, with that which the astro- 

 nomers of the expedition of the boundaries found in 1756. 

 (Caulin, p. 56.) 



VOL. V. 2 Y 



