3iS 



from wishing to exaggerate the riches of this 

 soil ; but I do not think myself authorized to 

 deny the existence of precious metals in the 

 primitive mountains of Guyana for the single 

 reason, that in our journey through that coun- 

 try we saw no metallic veins. It is somewhat 

 remarkable, that the natives of the Oroonoko 

 have a name in their languages for gold (carw- 

 curu, in Caribbee, caricuri in Tamanac, cavitta 

 in Maypure), while the word they use to denote 

 silver, prata, is manifestly borrowed from the 

 Spanish *. The notions collected by Acunna, 

 father Fritz, and la Condamine, on the stream- 

 works of gold south and north of the Rio Uaupes, 

 agree with what I learnt of the auriferous soil 

 of those countries. However great we may 

 suppose the communications that took place 

 between the nations of the Oroonoko before 

 the arrival of the Europeans, they certainly did 

 not draw their gold from the eastern declivity of 



* The PareCas say, instead of prata, rata, (Gili, vol. ii, p. 

 4). It is the Castillian word plata ill pronounced. Near 

 the Yurubesh there is another inconsiderable tributary stream 

 of the Rio Negro, the Curicur-iari. It is easy to recognize 

 in this name the Caribbee word carucur, gold. The Caribbees 

 pushed their incursions from the mouth of the Oroonoko 

 south-west toward the Rio Negro j and it was this restless 

 people, who carried the fable of El Dorado, by the same way, 

 but in an opposite direction (from south-west to north-east), 

 from the Mesopotamia between the Rio Negro and the Ju- 

 pura to the sources of the Rio franco. 



