515 



vels of two Spaniards, Don Antonio Santos^ 

 and Nicolas Rodriguez, and also by the geodesic 

 labors of the Portugueze Pontes and Almeida. 

 There are two portages little frequented, be- 

 tween the Rio Branco and the Rio Essequibo 

 (the portages of Sarauru and the lake Amucu), 

 on the south of the chain of Pacaraina ; they 

 facilitate the road by land that leads from 

 the Villa of the Rio Negro to Dutch Guyana *. 

 The portage, on the contrary, between the basin 



Serra (1787 and 1804). These manuscript maps, containing 

 the whole detail of the trigonometric survey of the windings 

 of the rivers, were obligingly communicated to M. JLapie 

 and myselfj by the Count of Linhares. It may be affirmed, 

 that the course of few rivers in Europe has been marked by 

 more minute operations than that of the Rio Branco, the Ura- 

 ricuera, the Yacutu, and the Maho j and we may regret that 

 in the state of barbarism in which the geography of the vast 

 countries of Spanish and Portugueze America yet are, a predi- 

 lection for such rigorous precision has prevailed respecting a 

 wild and almost uninhabited region. 5° Notes of the voyage 

 made by Francisco Jose Rodriguez Barata, Lieutenant Co>* 

 lonel of the first regiment of the line at Para, when ensign, 

 by the Rio Branco., the Tacutu, and the Sarauru, to Rio Ru- 

 punuri, and Surinam, in crossing (1793) the portage, or 

 isthmus that separates on the south of Cerro Conucumu, the 

 basins of the Rio Branco and the Essequibo (Vol. v, p. 480) . 

 I owe this information to the kindness of M. Brito, ambas- 

 sador of Portugal at the court of France. 



* The portage of the lake Amucu (Amacu), between the 

 CanoPirara, a tributary stream of the Rio Mahu and the Cano 

 Tavaricuru or Tauricuru, is ten leagues north of the portage 

 of Sarauru (Vol, v, p. 480). 



2 m 2 



