53 



other, and the position of which is founded on 

 absolute or simply astronomical phenomena ; 

 we are capable of estimating the sum of the 

 errors that may have been committed. It was 

 thus (and no determination of longitude had been 

 made before me in the interiour) that I con- 

 nected astronomically Cumana, Angostura, Es- 

 meralda, San Carlos del Rio Negro, the Great 

 Cataracts, San Fernando de Apure, Portocabel- 

 lo, and Caraccas. These determinations contain 

 within just limits an area of more than ten thou- 

 sand square leagues. The system of the positions 

 on the shore, and the valuable results of the plans 

 executed by the maritime expedition of Fidalgo, 

 have been joined to the system of the positions on 

 the Oroonoko and the Rio Negro by two chro- 

 nometric lines, one of which crosses the llanos of 

 Calabozo, and the other the llanos of Pao. The 

 observations on the Parima present a band, that 

 divides into two parts an immense extent of 

 land (seventy-three thousand square leagues) of 

 various kinds, not one point of which had till 

 then been astronomically determined *. These 

 labours, which I undertook with feeble means, 

 but according to a general plan, have furnished, 

 I venture to flatter myself, the first astronomi- 

 cal basis of the geography of those countries ; 

 but it is time to multiply them, to improve then\, 



* See above, vol. v, p. 788, note \ m 



