792 



the natives still call the Mountain of Gold. 

 They advised Hortsmann, to seek round the Rio 

 Mahu for a mine of silver (no doubt mica with 

 large plates), of diamonds, and of emeralds. He 

 found nothing but rocky crystals. His account 

 seems to prove, that the whole length of the 

 mountains of the Upper Oroonoko ( Sierra Pa- 

 rima ) toward the east is composed of granitic 

 rocks, full of druses and open veins, like the Peak 

 of Duida*. Near these lands, which still enjoy a 

 great celebrity for their riches, on the western 

 limits of Dutch Guyana, live the Macusis, Atu- 

 rajoes, and Acuvajoes. The traveller Santos 

 found them stationed between the Rupunuwini, 

 the Mahu, and the chain of Pacaraimo. It is the 

 aspect of the micaceous rocks of the Ucucuamo, the 

 name of the Rio Parima, the inundations of the ri- 

 vers Urariapara, Parima, and Xurumu, mid more 

 especially the existence of the lake Amucu (near the 

 Rio Rupunuwini, and regarded as the principal 

 source of the Rio Parima J, which have given 

 rise to the fable of the White Sea and the Do- 

 rado of Parima. All these circumstances (which 

 have served on this very account to corroborate 

 the general opinion) are found united on a space 

 of ground, which is eight or nine leagues broad 

 from north to south, and forty long from east to 



Rodriguez; it is the Cerro Acuquamo of Caulin, or rather of 



his commentator. (Hist, corogr., p. 176.) 



* See abo\e, p. 506, and 553. 



