146 



between the little Portuguese fort of San Juaquim and the 

 sources of the Rio Carony * (lat. 3° 0 7 — 3° 45 7 ). Some 

 stones (piedras de marco) have been placed to mark the limit 

 between Spanish and Portuguese America ; and are deco- 

 rated f with the following pompous inscription : Pax et 

 Justitia osculatce sunt. Ex pactis finium regundoruni Madridi 

 Idibus Jan. 1750 but the connexion of these points., very 

 distant from one another, the definitive fixation of the limits., 

 and their solemn recognition, have never been obtained. 

 All that has hitherto been done is regarded only as pro- 

 visional, and in the meantime the two neighbouring nations, 

 without relinquishing the extension of their rights, maintain 

 a state of peaceable possession . W e have mentioned above, 

 that, if a canal of 5,300 toises long % were substituted for 

 the portage of Villa Bella (15 |°), between the Rio de la 

 Madeira and the Rio Paraguay, an inland navigation would 

 be opened between the mouth of the Oroonoko and that of 

 the Rio de la Plata, between Angostura and Montevideo. 

 The course of the great rivers in the direction of the meri- 

 dians would perhaps afford a natural boundary between the 



* Vol. v, p. 481, and p. 789. 



f As at the point where the Rio Jauru enters the Para- 

 guay. See the Patriota de Rio Janeiro, 1813, N° 2, p. 54. 



X The portage (varadoiro) , properly speaking, is between 

 the little rivers Aguapehy and Alegre. The former runs into 

 the Jauru, which is a tributary stream of the Paraguay - 7 the 

 Rio Alegre falls into the Guapore, a tributary stream of the 

 Rio de la Madeira. The sources of the Rio Topayos lie also 

 very near the Villa Bella and the sources of the Paraguay. 

 This country, which forms a land isthmus between the 

 basins of the Amazon and the Rio de la Plata, will be one 

 day of the highest importance for the inland trade of South 

 America, 



