720 



The whole eastern coast of South America^ 

 from Cape Saint Roque, and particularly from 

 the port of Maranham*, as far as the group of the 

 mountains of Paria, is so low, that it appears to 

 me difficult to attribute the delta of the Oroono- 

 ko, and the formation of its soil, to the accu- 

 mulated mud of one river. I do not deny, that 

 the delta of the Nile, according to the testimony 

 of the ancients, was heretofore a gulf of the 



dad, and I had settled the longitude of Angostura from that of 

 Cumana, one of the points of America, the position of which 

 rests on the most certain statements. Boca de Manamo, nearly 

 the westernmost of the bocas chicas del Orinoco, sixty-four de- 

 grees forty-four minutes. San Rafael, near the point where 

 the Cano Manamo, which forms the bocas chicas, separates 

 from the principal trunk, sixty-four degrees eighteen minutes. 

 Viejo Guayana, sixty-four degrees forty-three minutes. (The 

 latitude observed on land by Churruca is eight degrees eight 

 minutes twenty-four seconds ; almost the same therefore as 

 the latitude of Angostura, which I found to be eight degrees 

 eight minutes eleven seconds. La Cruz and Arrowsmith 

 place Vieja Guayana eighteen and twenty- six seconds north 

 of Angostura.) Santo Thome del Angostura, sixty-six degrees 

 fifteen minutes twenty-one seconds. 



* According to the excellent observations yet unpublished 

 of Baron de Roussin, captain in the French navy, who has 

 lately made a survey of the coast of Brazil, the latitude 

 of Fort St. Antonio de la Barre is two degrees twenty-nine 

 minutes two seconds south ; longitude forty-six degrees 

 thirty-four minutes fifty-nine seconds (supposing the fort 

 Anathomirim in the island of St. Catherine fifty degrees 

 fifty-one minutes fifteen seconds west of Paris). f 



