753 



and direction ; no buoy however has yet been 

 laid down, to indicate any deposit of earth - 

 formed in the bed of the river, where the waters 

 have lost their original velocity. There exists 

 on the south of Cape Barima, as well by the 

 river of this name as by the Rio Moroca and 

 several ester es*, a communication with the Eng- 

 lish colony of Essequebo. Small vessels can 

 penetrate into the interior as far as the Rio Pou- 

 maron-f-, on which are the ancient settlements 

 of Zealand and Middlebourg. Heretofore this 

 communication interested the government of 

 Caraccas only on account of the facility it fur- 

 nished to an illicit trade ; but since Berbice, De- 

 merara, and Essequebo, have fallen into the 

 hands of a more powerful neighbour, it fixes the 

 attention of the Spanish Americans as being 

 connected with the security of their frontiers. 

 Rivers which have a course parallel to the coast, 

 and are no where farther distant from it than 

 five or six nautical miles J, characterize the 



* Aestuaria, estuaries. 



f Near Cape Nassau. Colonel Ynciarte, before he was 

 settled at Angostura, was employed by the Spanish govern- 

 ment to make a survey of the labyrinth of channels (esteros 

 y caHosJ between the great moutli of the Oroonoko and that 

 of the Essequebo. Unfortunately this officer was not fur- 

 nished with a chronometer. 



J See for instance, on Mr. V an der Bosch's fine maps, the 

 course of the Commewyne, which joins the river of Surinam 

 at right angles, as the Cayuni joins the Essequebo. 



VOL. V. 3 c 



