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cance, and of Aponte, gave birth on their eastern 

 declivity to all the rivers, that traverse the 

 forests of Guyana between the Meta and the 

 Putumayo. The tributary streams being taken 

 for the main trunks, and the course of all these 

 rivers being prolonged as far as the chain of the 

 mountains, the sources of the Oroonoko, the 

 Rio Negro, and the Guaviare^ are confounded 

 together. The extreme difficulty of descending- 

 the rapid declivity of the Andes toward the east, 

 the shackles with which a narrow policy fetters 

 the commerce with the Llanos of the Meta, San 

 Juan, and Caguan, and the little interest that is 

 felt in following and exploring the branches of 

 these rivers, have all served to augment this 

 geographical uncertainty. When I was at Santa 

 Fe de Bogota, the road that leads by the vil- 

 lages of Usme, Ubaque, or Caqueza, to Apiay 

 and the embarcadera of the Rio Meta, was 

 scarcely known. It was but recently I could 

 rectify the map of this river by the journals of 

 the canon Cortes Madariago, and the notions 

 acquired during the war of independance in Ve- 

 nezuela. 



The following is all that we know with cer- 

 tainty on the situation of the sources at the foot 

 of the Cordilleras, between 4° 20' and 1° 10' of 

 north latitude. Behind the Paramo of Suma 

 Paz, of which I took the bearings from Pandi, 

 rises the Rio de Aguas Blancas, which, with the 



