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read on the map of La Cruz, " this line points 

 out what has been discovered and pacified by 

 the governor of Caraccas, don Jose Solano." 

 It is well known in the missions, that Solano 

 never left Fernando de Atabapo, that he did not 

 see the Oroonoko east of the Guaviari, and that 

 he could obtain no information respecting those 

 countries but from common soldiers, who were 

 ignorant of the language of the natives. The 

 work of Father Caulin, who was the historio- 

 grapher of the expedition, the testimony of don 

 Apollinario Diez de la Fuente, and the voyage 

 of Santos, sufficiently prove, that no person has 

 ever seen the White Sea of La Cruz ; which, as 

 the names of the tributary streams indicate, is 

 an imaginary enlargement of the western branch 

 of the Rio Branco above the confluence of the 

 Tacutu and the Uraricuera or Rio Parima. 

 But, even admitting facts, the falsehood of 

 which is sufficiently proved in the present day, 

 it could scarcely be conceived from the hydro- 

 graphic principles generally adopted, by what 

 right the lake Ipava could be called the source 

 of the Oroonoko. When one river runs into a 

 lake, and three others issue from it, we know 

 not to which of these rivers we ought to give 

 the name of the former. Much less can any 

 motive justify the geographer in preserving the 

 same name for a river, the source of which is 

 separated from the lake by a lofty chain of 



