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The scenery around the town of Angostura is 

 little varied; but the view of the river, which 

 forms a vast canal stretching from the south- 

 west to the north-east, is singularly majestic* 

 The government, at the end of a long contro- 

 versy on the defence of the place, and the reach 

 of cannon shot, wished to know exactly the 

 breadth of the Oroonoko at the point called the 

 strait, where stands a rock (el Pennon), that 

 disappears entirely when the waters are at their 

 height. Though there is an engineer attached 

 to the provincial government, a few months 

 before my arrival at Angostura don Mathias 

 Yturbur had been sent from Caraccas, to mea- 

 sure the Oroonoko between the demolished fort 

 of San Gabriel and the redoubt of San Rafael. 

 I was told vaguely, that this measure had given 

 a little more than eight hundred varas castel- 

 lanas. The plan of the town, annexed to the 

 great map of South America by La Cruz Olme- 

 dilla, indicates nine hundred and forty. I took 

 with great care two trigonometric measurements, 

 one in the strait itself, between the two forts of 

 San Gabriel and San Rafael ; the other east of 

 Angostura, in the great walk (Alameda) near 

 the Embarcadero del Ganado. The result of the 

 first measure * (at the minimum of breadth) was 

 three hundred and eighty toises ; and that of the 



* The base measured along the key, 245*6 met. Angles ; 



