789 



and narrow Cordillera, that of Pacaraimo, Qui- 

 miropaca, and Ucucuamo; which, stretching 

 from east to south-west, unites the group of 

 mountains of Parima to the mountains of Dutch 

 and French Guyana. It divides it's waters be- 

 tween the Carony, the Rupunury or Rupunu- 

 wini, and the Rio Branco ; and consequently 

 between the vallies of the Lower Oroonoko, the 

 Essequebo, and the Rio Negro *. On the north- 

 west of the Cordillera de Pacaraimo, which has 

 been traversed but by a small number of Eu- 

 ropeans (by the German surgeon, Nicolas Horts- 

 mann, in 1739 ; by a Spanish officer, Don An- 

 tonio Santos, in 1775 ; by the Portugueze 

 colonel, Barata, in 1791 ; and by several Eng- 



an area of 48,000 square leagues, in which not a single situa- 

 tion has been astronomically determined. This country lies 

 between the missions of the Oroonoko, and French and 

 Dutch Guyana. Thus also west of the missions of the Oroo- 

 noko, between the Atabapo and the eastern back of the 

 Andes, there are 25,000 square leagues destitute of points 

 astronomically determined. The geographer, who would 

 ground a map of South America on observations of latitude 

 and longitude, finds on the north of the Amazon a terra incognita 

 three times as big as Spain. The places which I determined 

 astronomically between San Fernando de Apure, Javita, San 

 Carlos del Rio Negro, and Santo Thomas del Angostura, that 

 is, between 1° 53' and 8° 8' of latitude, and 66 15' and 

 70° 20' of longitude, are very advantageously situate, since 

 they divide this vast extent of land into two parts, and fur- 

 nish fixed points on the east and west of the Oroonoko, 

 * See above, p. 481, 576. 



