342 



Uaupes, on the Iquiare (Iguiari, Iguari), and on 

 the Yurubesh (Yurubach, Urubaxi) ? It was 

 there Philip von Huten first sought El Dorado, 

 and with a handful of men fought the battle of 

 Omaguas, so celebrated in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. In separating what is fabulous from the 

 narratives of the Conquistadores, we cannot fail 

 to recognize in the names preserved <>n the same 

 spots a certain basis of historic truth. We 

 follow the expedition of Huten beyond the Gua- 

 viare and the Caqueta ; we find in the Guay- 

 pes*, governed by the cacique of Macatoa, the 

 inhabitants of the river of Uaupes, which also 

 bears the name of Guape, or Guapue ; we call 

 to mind, that father Acunna calls the Iquiari 

 (Quiquiare) a gold river ; and that fifty years 

 later father Fritz, a missionary of great veracity, 

 received, in the mission of Yurimaguas, the Ma- 

 naos(Manoas), adorned with plates of beaten gold, 

 coming from the country between the Uaupes 

 and the Caqueta, or Jupura. The rivers, that 

 rise on the eastern declivity of the Andes (for 

 instance the Napo) carry along with them a 

 great deal of gold, even when their sources are 

 found in trachytic soils. Why may there not 

 be an alluvial auriferous soil to the east of the 

 Cordilleras, as there is to the west, in the So- 

 nora, at Choco, and at Barbacoas? I am far 



* Fray Pedro Simon, p. 345. 



