853 



far as the shore of Guyana ; since, long before 

 the fur-trade had attracted English, Russian, 

 and American vessels to the north-west coast 

 of America, iron tools had been carried from 

 New Mexico and Canada beyond the Stony 

 Mountains. From an error in longitude, the 

 traces of which we find in all the maps of the 

 16th century, the auriferous mountains of Peru 

 and New Grenada were supposed to be much 

 nearer the mouths of the Oroonoko and the 

 Amazon, than they are in fact. Geographers 

 have the habit of augmenting and extending 

 beyond measure countries that are recently dis- 

 covered. In the map of Peru published at Ve- 

 rona by Paulo di Forlani, the town of Quito is 

 placed at the distance of 400 leagues from the 

 coast of the South Sea, on the meridian of 

 Cumana ; and the Cordillera of the Andes there 

 fills almost the whole surface of Spanish, French, 

 and Dutch Guyana*. This erroneous opinion 



* La Descrittione di lutto il Peru. In this very scarce 

 map Cumana is situate fifty leagues in land • the town of 

 Quito in four degrees of south latitude ; Pasto in the meri- 

 dian of Surinam; and Cuzco south-west of Quito. A small 

 alpine lake, which I saw between Otavalo and the Villa de 

 Ibarra is marked on the spot where the Laguna de Parime 

 is placed in modern maps. When the Spaniards began to 

 penetrate into Guyana, proceeding from the east, the names 

 of places near the South Sea were transferred toward the 

 west. Sanson also (1669) calls the country between the 

 Meta and the Guaviare the Province of Paria. 



