537 



Melguera or dos Limites, on the west of Villa- 

 bella, between the Guapore and the Baures; 

 2d. the Serra Baliza, between the Buenos and 

 the Alegre ; and 3d. the Cordillera of San Fer- 

 nando, between the ancient missions of San 

 Juan Bauptista and San Jago (lat. 16°— 20°) ad- 

 vancing in the province of Chiquitos to 64i° of 

 longitude, and approaching within 40 leagues 

 distance of the counterfort of the Andes of 

 Santa Cruz of Sierra; but these labours, al- 

 though executed at the hydrographic Depot of 

 Rio Janeiro, do not merit much confidence in 

 the western regions of Brazil, that terra incog- 

 nita, which extends from Cochabamba to Vil- 

 labella. The form- of the insulated mountains 

 in the plains of Chiquitos, the lakes between 

 the missions of San Rafael, San Jose, and San 

 Juan Bauptista, copied from d'Anville and La 

 Cruz, are become stereotypes on every map for 

 eighty years past; and it is certain that a land- 

 strait, a plain covered with some hills, in 62° 

 and 66° of longitude, unites the great basins 

 of La Plata and the Amazon. M. Eschwege 

 obtained precise information from some Spanish 

 planters, who came from Cochabamba to Villa- 

 bella, on the continuity of those basins or sa- 

 vannahs. 



According to his measures and geognostic 

 observations, the high summits of the Serra do 

 Mar (the coast chain) scarcely attain 660 



