811 



east of the Paramo de la Surna Paz. I have 

 been on the western back of this group of moun- 

 tains, at Fusagasuga, and there heard, that the 

 plains, by which they are skirted toward the 

 east, still enjoy some celebrity for wealth among 

 the natives. Speier found in the populous vil- 

 lage of la Fragua a Casa del Sol (temple of the 

 Sun), and a convent of virgins, similar to those 

 of Peru and New Grenada. Were these the 

 consequence of a migration of religious rites 

 toward the east? or must we admit, that the 

 plains of San Juan were their first cradle? Tra- 

 dition indeed records, that Bochica, the legislator 

 of New Grenada, and high-priest of Iraca, had 

 gone up from the plains of the east to the table- 

 land of Bogota. But Bochica being at once 

 the offspring and the symbol of the Sun, his 

 history may contain allegories, that are merely 

 astrological*. Speier, pursuing his way toward 

 the south, and crossing the two branches of the 

 Guaviare, which are the Ariare and the Guaya- 

 vero (Guayare or Canicamare), arrived on the 

 banks of the great Rio Papamene~j~ or Caqueta. 



have changed, is not situate on the Rio Fragua itself, one of 

 the branches of the Caqueta, for Speier passed the Rio Ariare 

 after having sojourned in the village of Fragua. 



* See my Views of the Cordilleras and American Monuments, 

 vol. ii, (or xiv of the present work) p. 135. 



f Sec above, p. 319. The geographer La Cruz Olrned il- 

 ia, gives the name of Fapcmene to the little river Timaoa, 



i 



