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pagated for ages. D'Anville, in the first edition 

 of his great map of South America, (an edition 

 extremely rare, which I found in the French 

 King's library,) laid down the Rio Negro as an 

 arm of the Oroonoko, that branched off from 

 the principal track between the mouths of the 

 Meta and the Vichada, near the cataract of 

 los Astures (Atures). This great geographer 

 was then entirely ignorant of the existence of 

 the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo ; and he makes 

 the Oroonoko or Rio Paragua, the Japura, and 

 the Putumayo take their rise from three branch- 

 ings of the Caqueta. It was the expedition of 

 the boundaries, commanded by Ituriaga and 

 Solano, that made known the real state of 

 things. Solano was the geographical engineer 

 of this expedition; he advanced in 1756 as far 

 as the mouth of the Guaviare, after having 

 passed the Great Cataracts. He found, that> to 

 continue to go up the Oroonoko, he must direct 

 his course toward the east ; and that this river 

 received at the point of it's great inflexion, in 

 the latitude of 4° 4', the waters of the Guaviare, 

 which two miles higher had received those of 

 the Atabapo. Interested in approaching the 

 Portugueze possessions as near as possible, 

 Solano resolved to proceed forward toward the 

 south. At the confluence of the Atabapo and 

 the Guaviare he found an Indian settlement of 



