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coast of Cayenne, a simple copy of the great 

 Spanish map of La Cruz Olmedilla. A line, 

 indicating the extent of country which Don Jose 

 Solano boasted of having discovered and pacified 

 by his troops and emissaries, was taken for the 

 road followed by that officer, who never went 

 beyond San Fernando de Atabapo, a village 

 one hundred and sixty leagues distant from the 

 pretended lake Parima. The study of the work 

 of father Caulin, who was the historiographer of 

 the expedition of Solano, and who states very 

 clearly, from the testimony of the Indians, u how 

 the name of the river Parima gave rise to the 

 fable of Dorado, and of an inland sea," has been 

 neglected. No use either has been made of a 

 map of the Oroonoko, three years posterior to 

 that of La Cruz, and traced by Surville from the 

 collection of true or hypothetical materials pre- 

 served in the archives of the Despacho universal 

 de Indias. The progress of geography, as ma- 

 nifested on our maps, is much slower than might 

 be supposed from the number of useful results, 

 which are found scattered in the works of dif- 

 ferent nations. Astronomical observations and 

 topographic information accumulate during a 

 long lapse of years, without being made use of ; 

 and from a principle of stability and preserva- 

 tion, in other respects praiseworthy, those who 

 construct maps often choose rather to add no- 

 thing, than to sacrifice a lake, a chain of moun- 



