327 



between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific 

 Ocean*. 



Before the voyage of Acunna an idea was 

 spread among the missionaries, that the Caqueta, 

 the Guaviare, and the Oroonoko, were but dif- 

 ferent names for the same river; but Sanson 

 the geographer, in the maps which he framed 

 on the observations of Acunna, conceived the 

 idea of dividing the Caqueta into two branches, 

 one of which should be the Oroonoko, and the 

 other the Rio Negro, or Curiguacuru. This bi- 

 furcation at right angles is figured on all the 

 maps of Sanson, Coronelli, Du Val, and De 

 risle-f, from 1656 to 1703. It was presumed 

 that in this manner the communications of the 

 great rivers might be explained, of which Acunna 

 had brought the first tidings from the mouth of 

 the Rio Negro; and it was never suspected, 

 that the Jupura was the real continuation of the 

 Caqueta. Sometimes the name of the Caqueta 

 was made to disappear entirely, and the river 

 that formed the bifurcation was termed the Rio 

 Paria or Yuyapari, which are the ancient deno- 

 minations of the Oroonoko. De lTsle, toward the 



* See my map of the Rio de la Magdalena, and my Obs, 

 Astron., vol. i, p. 304. (Nivellement geologique, No. 130.) 



+ See three maps of South America, by Sanson, in 1656, 

 1669, and 1680 ; map of Du Val in 1634 ; map of Coronelli, 

 in 1689 ; maps of De l'lsle, in 1700 and 1703. 



