239 



ficult to form an idea of the muscular force ex- 

 erted by the boatmen, whether they tow their 

 barks, or push their oars (palanca) against the 

 bank*, in going up the Apure, the Portuguesa, 

 or the Rio de Santo Domingo, at the time of 

 the high floods. The Llanos present a ridge of 

 partition so little elevated, that between the Rio 

 Pao and the lake of Valencia, as well as between 

 the Rio Mamo and the Guarapiche, communi- 

 cations might be opened by canals, and join, 

 for the facility of inland trade, the basin of the 

 Lower Oroonoko to the coast of the Atlantic 

 and the gulf of Paria-}-*. 



United with the local interest of the internal 

 navigation of Venezuela, is another intimately 

 connected with the prosperity of the commer- 

 cial nations of both hemispheres. Among the 

 five points that appear to present the practica- 

 bility of opening a direct navigation between 

 the Atlantic ocean and the South sea, three are 

 found in the territory of Columbia. I will not 

 here repeat what I have already observed on 

 this important object, in the first volume of the 

 Political Essay on New Spain % : where I have 



* There are windings (vueltas) in the Portuguesa and the 

 Apure, and counter-forts that sometimes retain boats a whole 

 day. 



+ Vol, iv, p. 150 ; Vol. vi, p. 46. 



% Vol. i, p. cv. 16, &c ; Vol. iv, p. 17. See also my At- 

 las Geogr. et Physique de la Nouvelle Espagne, pi. 15. 



