m 



streams, by the Meta, the Guaviare, the Rio 

 Negro, and the Caqueta, that the inhabitants of 

 Cundinamarca will communicate, in happier 

 times, with those of Brazil and Paraguay." 



I am aware, a persuasion is pretty generally 

 spread in the missions of the Andaquies, that the 

 Caqueta sends off, between the confluents of the 

 Rio de la Fragaa and of the Caguan*, a branch 

 to the Putumayo ; and farther down, below the 

 mouth of the Rio Payoya, another branch to the 

 Oroonoko: but this opinion rests only on a 

 vague tradition of the Indians, who often con- 

 found portages^- with bifurcations. The cata- 

 racts at the mouth of the Payoya, and the fero- 

 city of the Huaques, called also Murcielagos 

 (bats), because they suck the blood of their 

 prisoners, prevent the Spanish missionaries from 

 descending the Caqueta. No white man has 

 ever come from San Miguel de Mocoa to the 

 confluence of the Caqueta with the Amazon. The 

 Portugueze astronomers, at the time of the last 

 commission of boundaries, first went up the 

 Caqueta, as far as the latitude of 0° 36' south, 

 and then the Rio de los Enganos (Deceitful 

 River) and the Rio Cunare, which are tributary 



* Near the ruined mission of Santa Maria, a little below 

 the Rio Mecaya. 



t I know two of these portages between tributary streams 

 of the Apoporis (the Cananare and Japui) and others of the 

 Uaupes (the Jucari, the Capuri, and the Tiquie). 



VOL. V. Z 



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