725 



Navios, which mariners recognize by the Punta 

 Barima, the Bocas of Marias as, Macareo, Pe- 

 dernales, and Manamo grande, are most useful 

 for navigation. That part of the delta, which 

 extends to the west of the Boca de Macareo, is 

 bathed by the waters of the gulf of Paria, or 

 Golfo triste. This basin is formed by the east- 

 ern coast of the province of Cumana, and the 

 western coast of the island of Trinidad ; it com- 

 municates with the Caribbean sea by the famous 

 mouths of the Dragon (Bocas de Dragos), which 

 the coasting pilots have regarded ever since the 

 time of Christopher Columbus, though impro- 

 perly, as the mouths of the Oroonoko*. 



and Macareo, identical with the B. de Cucuina 2 Does not 

 the Cano de Laurent, which is said to be extremely wide 

 where it separates from the Oroonoko, and very narrow at 

 it's mouth, lead to one of the two Bocas de Mar i us as ? 



* The waters, which issue so impetuously from the Bocas 

 de Dragos (See chap. 3, vol. ii, p. 29), are 1st, those of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, the currents of which run toward the coast of 

 Guyana through the Canal del Sur (between Punta de Man- 

 gles of the continent, and Punta Galiota of the island of 

 Trinidad) west-north-west : 2d, the fresh waters of the Bo- 

 cas chicas of the Oroonoko (of the Canos Pedernales and 

 Manamo grande joined with that of the great Rio Guarapi- 

 che). It cannot be doubted, that the gulf of Paria formed 

 heretofore an inland basin, when the island of Trinidad was 

 still united on the north to cape Paria, and on the south- 

 west (Punta de Icacos) to the Punto Foleto, situate east of 

 the boca de Pedernales. Three small rocky islands, partly 

 cultivated with cotton (bias de Monos, de Huebos and de Cha- 



