805 



would find men clothed, and gold in abundance. 

 Ordaz pursued in preference the navigation of 

 the Oroonoko, but the cataracts of Tabaje (per. 

 haps even those of the Atures) compelled him 

 to terminate his discoveries*. 



It is worthy of remark, that in this voyage, 

 far anterior to that of Orellana, and consequent- 

 ly the greatest which the Spaniards had then 

 performed on a river of the New World, the 

 name of the Oroonoko was for the first time 

 heard. Ordaz, the leader of the expedition, 

 affirms, that the river, from it's mouth as far as 

 the confluence of the Meta, is called] Uriaparia, 

 but that above this confluence it bears the name 

 of Orinucu. This word (formed analogously 

 with the words Tamanacu, Otomacu, Sinarucu) 

 is in fact of the Tamanac tongue ; and^ as the 



* Herera, Dec. 4, p. 219 ; Dec. 5, p. 22. Fray Pedro 

 Simon, p. 1701-28. Caulin, p. 142. Southey, vol. 1, p. 78 

 Ordaz gives no name to the cataracts by which he was stop- 

 ped; but those, which I have mentioned in the text, appear to 

 me to be clearly indicated by their geographical situation. 

 (See above, vol. iv, p. 561, and 569.) Father Caulin con- 

 founds the Raudal of Cariven with that of Camiseta ; and 

 the Raudal of Tabaje, near San Borja, with that of Caricha- 

 na ; though historians place the first (una cinta de penasj 

 below Cabruta, and the cataract which prevented all farther 

 navigation above the confluence of the Meta. Admitting 

 that the distances are not much exaggerated in the narratives 

 of the conquistadores, we may believe, that Ordaz went as 

 far as the Raudal of Atures. 



