844 



tended kingdoms of Quivira and Cibola, render- 

 ed celebrated by the falsehoods of the monk 

 Marcos de Niza, a great inland sea was imagin- 

 ed, from which the Rio Colorado of California 

 was made to issue*. A branch of the Rio Mag- 

 dalena flowed to the Laguna de Maracaybo ; 

 and the lake of Xarayes, near which a southern 

 Dorado^- was placed, communicated with the 

 Amazon, the Miari^: (Meary), and the Rio de 



* This is the Mexican Dorado, where it was pretended, 

 that vessels had been found on the coasts (of New Albion ?) 

 loaded with the merchandize of Catayo and China (Gomara 

 Hist, Gen. p. 117), and where Fray Marcos (like Huten in 

 the country of the Omaguas) had seen from afar the gilded 

 roofs of a great town, one of the Siete Ciudades. The inhabi- 

 tants have great dogs, en los quales quando se mudan cargan su 

 menage. (Herera, Dec. VI, p. 157, 206.) Later discoveries 

 however leave no doubt, that there existed a centre of civili- 

 zation in those countries. (See ray Political Essay on New 

 Spain, vol. i. p. 298, 31*0 ; vol. ii, p. 582.) 



f Herera, Descripcion de las Indias, p. 53. 



X As this river flows into the gulf of Maranhao (so named 

 because some French colonists, Rifault, De Vaux, and Ra- 

 vardiere, believed they were opposite the mouth of the Ma- 

 ragnon or Amazon), the ancient maps call the Meary Marag- 

 non, or Maranham. (See the maps of Hondius, and Paulo 

 de Forlani.) Perhaps the idea, that Pincon, to whom the 

 discovery of the real Maragnon is due, had landed in those 

 parts, since become celebrated by the shipwreck of Ayres 

 da Cunha, has also contributed to this confusion. The 

 Meary appears to me identical with the Rio de Vicente Pin- 

 ion of Diego Ribero, which is more than one hundred and for- 

 ty leagues from that of the modern geographers, (See above, 



