498 



did, favoured by a rapid current. The same 

 river, which rises to the east of that mission, 

 and sends a branch (the Cassiquiare) to the 

 Rio Negro, continues it's course, without inter- 

 ruption, toward Santa Barbara and San Fer- 

 nando de Atabapo. It is that part of the 

 Upper Oroonoko, which runs from the south- 

 east to the north-west, and which is called Rio 

 Paragua by the Indians. The same river, after 

 having mingled it's waters with those of the 

 Guaviare and the Atabapo, flows toward the 

 north, and passes over the Great Cataracts. 

 All these circumstances are in general well 

 marked in the great map of La Cruz ; but M. 

 Buache no doubt supposed, that in the dif- 

 ferent voyages said to have been performed by 

 water from the Amazon to the Oroonoko, the 

 boats have been dragged over some portage 

 ( arastradero ) from one stream to another. This 

 respectable geographer might be led so much 

 the more readily to admit, that the rivers had 

 not in nature the course prescribed to them in 

 the new Spanish maps, as these very maps dis- 

 play the most singular and improbable branch- 

 ings of confluent streams around lake Parima 

 (that pretended White Sea six hundred leagues 

 square). We might apply to the Oroonoko 

 what father Acunha said of the Amazon, when 

 describing it's marvels, M nacieron hermanadas 



