522 



precision. The whole interior of the Dutch, 

 French, and Portugueze Guyanas, is a terra in- 

 cognita; and the astronomical geography of 

 those countries has scarcely made any progress 

 during thirty years # . If the American limits 

 recently fixed rfs between France and Portugal, 

 should one day cease to belong to the illusions 

 of diplomacy, and acquire reality, in being 

 traced on the territory by means of astronomi- 



* It is certain that M. Le Blond, correspondent of the 

 Academy of Sciences, in going up the river Oyapock, not- 

 withstanding all his zeal, only reached a little beyond the 

 mouth of the Suacari. The sources of the Araguari (Araou- 

 ari), the Oyapock, the Camopi, and the Tamouri (tributa- 

 ries of the Oyapock), and the Araouna (tributary of the Ma- 

 roni), are very near each other, in 2° 30' latitude> and 35° 

 10' longitude. A voyage of discovery should be made from 

 this point of French Guyana, towards the confluence of the 

 Rio Branco with the Rio Negro, in the direction S. 75° W., on 

 a distance of 220 leagues. The borders of French Guyana lie 

 between Cape Orange and the mouth of the Maroni, S. E. 

 and N. W. Now, in a perpendicular direction to the shore 

 of Cayenne, none of the pretended great expeditions of the in- 

 terior have led white men beyond Mount Tripoupou and the 

 post of the Roukouyenes Indians, at the distance of more 

 than 70 leagues ! The communications opened by land be- 

 tween the Capitania of Rio Negro and the shore of Guyana 

 have been directed solely along the Rio Essequibo, on ac- 

 count of the facility furnished by the proximity of its tribu- 

 tary streams to those of the Rio Branco. 



t In consequence of the treaty of Vienna. See above, Vol, 

 v, p. 842. 



