51 



tening of the Earth. When a more intimate 

 connexion is established between the free go- 

 vernments of La Plata and Venezuela, advan- 

 tage will no doubt be taken of the public tran- 

 quillity, to execute on the north and south of 

 the equator, in the llanos and the pampas, the 

 measurements we propose. The llanos of Pao 

 and Calabozo are nearly under the same meri- 

 dian as the pampas south of Cordova ; and the 

 difference of latitude of these plains, as smooth 

 as if they had been levelled by a long abode 

 of the waters, is forty-five degrees. These geo- 

 desic and astronomical observations would cost 

 little, on account of the nature of the places. 

 In 1734 La Condamine* showed how much 

 more useful and expeditious it would have been, 

 to have sent the academicians into the plains 

 (perhaps somewhat too woody and marshy), 

 that extend on the south of Cayenne toward the 

 confluence of the Rio Xingu and Amazon, than 

 to have compelled them to struggle, on the 

 table-land of Quito, with cold, with tempests, 

 and with the eruptions of volcanoes. 



The Spanish American governments ought 

 not to consider the projected operations in the 



* Voy., d I'Equat., p. 194 and 201. If we were to seek 

 for a country entirely flat and open, under the equator itself, I 

 should prefer the plains extending south of the chain of the 

 mountains of Pacaraymo, toward the mouth of the Rio 

 Branco, to those which have been noted by M. de la Conda- 

 mine. See above, vol. v, p. 789 and 861. 



E 2 



