322 



origin on the declivity of the Cordilleras. The 

 voyage of Acunna gave rise to hypotheses, which 

 have been propagated down to our own days, 

 and which Messrs. de la Condamine and d'An- 

 ville have multiplied beyond measure. Acunna 

 had been told, in 1638, at the mouth of the 

 Rio Negro, that one of it's branches communi- 

 cated with another great river, on which the 

 Dutch were settled. Mr. Southey* judiciously 

 observes, that this notion, received at an im- 

 mense distance from the coast, proves the fre- 

 quency and activity of the intercourse at that 

 period between the barbarous nations of those 

 countries (particularly among those of the Ca- 

 ribbean race). It remains doubtful, whether 

 the Indians whom Acunna interrogated meant 

 to acquaint him with the communication be- 

 tween the Oroonoko and the Rio Negro by 

 means of the Cassiquiare, a natural channel, 

 which I went up from San Carlos to Esmeralda; 

 or only to give him a vague idea of the portages 

 between the sources of the Rio Branco-}- and 

 the Rio Essequibo. Acunna himself was not 

 of opinion, that the great river, the mouth of 

 which was in possession of the Dutch, was the 



* History of Brazil, vol. i, p. 599. 

 f It is the Rio Parime, Rio Blanco, Rio de Aguas Blan- 

 cas of our maps, that flows into the Rio Negro below Bar- 

 cellos, and is called by the inhabitants of it's banks, Que- 

 cuene. 



