485 



n tributary stream of the Oroonoko, which from 

 it's situation appears to be the Rio Caura, 

 Every thing remained uncertain during the 

 space of a century, which separates the voyage 

 of Acunha from the discovery of the Cassi- 

 quiare by father Roman. 



The communication ot the Oroonoko with 

 the Amazon by the Rio Negro, and a bifurcation 

 of the Caqueta, imagined by Sanson, and re- 

 jected by father Fritz and by Bleauw, reappeared 

 in the first maps of De FIsle; but were abandoned 

 by that celebrated geographer toward the end of 

 his days Those who had mistaken the mode 

 of this communication hastened to deny the 

 communication itself. It is in fact well worthy 

 of remark, that, at the time when the Portu- 

 gueze went up most frequently by the Amazon, 

 the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare and when 

 father Gumilla's letters were carried (by the 

 natural interbranching of the rivers) from the 

 lower Oroonoko to Grand Para, this very mis- 

 sionary makes every effort to spread the opinion 

 through Europe, that the basins of the Oroo- 

 noko and the Amazon are perfectly separate. 

 He asserts J, that, having several times gone up 



* See above, p. 327, notet, 328, note * 

 + From 1738 to 1740. 

 % Orinoco illustr., vol. 1, p. 41. I conclude from a passage 

 in vol. i, p. 367, that this work, published in 1741, was writ- 

 ten in L739. It is therefore by mistake, as we have observed 

 before, that the Licencias of the censor are dated in 1731. 



