144 



Spanish Guyana and Brazil, the fort of San Carlos del Rio 

 Negro to be situate under the equator j a fort which I found, 

 by the observations made at the rock of Culimacari, to be 

 in 1° 53' 42" of north latitude. The second cause of un- 

 certainty, that which relates to political disputes respecting 

 the limits, is of high importance, wherever the Portuguese 

 territory is contiguous to that of the Spanish Americans. 

 The manuscript maps traced at Rio Janeiro or Lisbon have 

 little resemblance with those that are constructed at Buenos 

 Ayres and Madrid. I have spoken in the 23d Chapter * of 

 the interminable operations attempted by the commissions of 

 limits, which have been established during forty years in 

 Paraguay, on the banks of the Caqueta, and in the Capitaniu 

 general of the Rio Negro. The most important points of 

 discussion, according to the study I have made of this great 

 diplomatic controversy, are between the sea f and the river 



* Vol. v, p. 297. 

 f Since the usurpation of the territory of Montevideo by 

 the Portuguese, the limits between the state of Buenos 

 Ayres and Brazil have undergone great changes in the eastern 

 banda, or Cisphitine province, that is on the northern bank of 

 the Rio de la Plata, between the mouth of this river, and 

 the left bank of the Uruguay. The coast of Brazil from 

 30° to 34° of south latitude resembles that of Mexico be- 

 tween Tamiagua, Tampico, and the Rio del Norte. It is 

 formed by narrow peninsulas, behind which great lakes and 

 marshes of salt water are situate (Laguna de los Pathos, 

 Laguna Merim). The two Portuguese and Spanish marcos 

 lie toward the southern extremity of the Laguna Merim, 

 into which runs the small river of Tahym (lat. 32° 10'). 

 The plain between Tahym and Chuy was regarded as neu- 

 tral territory. The little fort of Santa Theresa (lat. 33° 58' 32", 

 according to the manuscript map of don Josef Varela) was 

 the most northern post possessed by the Spaniards on the 

 coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of the equator. 



