862 



in the province of Quixos), the Caqneta de 

 Mocoa as far as the mouth of the Fragua, in 

 fine, all the country comprised between Jaen de 

 Bracomoros and the Guaviare*, preserve their 

 ancient celebrity for metallic wealth. More to 

 the east, between the sources of the Guainia 

 (Rio Negro), the Uaupes, the Iquiare, and the 

 Yurubesh, we find an incontestibly auriferous 

 soil. There Acunha and father Fritz placed 

 their Laguna del Oro ; and various accounts, 

 which I obtained at San Carlos from Portugueze 

 Americans, explain perfectly what La Condamine 

 has related of the plates of beaten gold found in 

 the hands of the natives. If we pass from the 

 Iquiari to the left bank of the Rio Negro, we 

 shall enter a country entirely unknown between 

 the Rio Branco, the sources of the Essequebo^ 

 and the mountains of Portugueze Guyana. 

 Acunha speaks of the gold washed down by the 

 northern tributary streams of the Lower Mu- 

 ragnon, such as the Rio Trom betas (Oriximina), 

 the Curupatuba, and the Ginipape (Rio de Paru). 

 It appears to me a circumstance worthy of at- 

 tention, that all these rivers descend from the 

 same tableland, the northern slope of which 

 contains the lake Amucu, the Dorado of Raleigh 

 and the Dutch, and the isthmus between the 

 Rupunuri (Rupunuwini) and the Rio Mahu. 

 Nothing opposes our admitting, that there are 



* From Rio Santiago, a tributary stream of the Upper 

 Maragnoo, to the Llanos of Caguan and of San Juan, 



