198 



particularly since the period, when Don Ma- 

 nuel Centurion* was governor of Guyana, is so 

 short, that a messenger now carries despatches 

 from San Carlos del Rio Negro to Angostura in 

 twenty-three or twenty-four days, while formerly, 

 in going up the Cassiquiare, it required fifty 

 or sixty. You may consequently travel by the 

 Atabapo, from the Amazon to the Oroonoko, 

 without going up the Cassiquiare, so formid- 

 able from the force of it's current, the want of 

 provision, and the torment of moschettoes. I 

 will add, for the French reader, an example 

 drawn from the hydrographic maps of France. 

 In order to go from Nevers on the Loire to Mon- 

 tereau on the Seine, you might, instead of pro- 

 ceeding by the canal of Orleans, which joins, 

 like the Cassiquiare, two systems of rivers, esta- 

 blish a portage between the tributary streams of 

 the Loire and the Seine, and, by going up the 

 Nievre, cross an isthmus near the village of 

 Menou, and descend the Yonne to enter the 

 Seine. 



We shall soon see the great advantage, that 

 would result from a running canal across the 

 marshy ground between the Tuamini and the 

 Pimichin. If this project be some day carried 

 into execution, there would be no other obstacle 

 to vanquish in going from the fort of San Car- 



* Caulin, p. 76, 



