775 



Branco. From these various changes, the pro- 

 blem we are going to solve has become much 

 more complicated, than is generally supposed. 

 The number of geographers, who discuss the 

 basis of a map, with regard to the three points 

 of measures, of the comparison of descriptive 

 works, and of the etymological study* of names, 



* I use this expression, perhaps an improper one, to mark 

 a species of philological examination, to which the names of 

 rivers, lakes, mountains, and tribes, must be subjected, in 

 order to discover their identity in a great number of maps. 

 The apparent diversity of names arises partly from the dif- 

 ference of the dialects spoken by one and the same family of 

 people, partly from the imperfection of our European ortho- 

 graphy, and from the extreme negligence with which geogra- 

 phers copy one another. We recognize with difficulty the 

 Rio Uaupe in the Guapue or Guape ; the Xie, in the Gua- 

 icia ; the Raudal d'Atures, in Athule; the Caribbees, in 

 the Calinas and Galibis ; the Guaraunoes, or Uarau, in the 

 Waraw-ites j &c. It is however by similar mutations of let- 

 ters, that the Spaniards have made hijo of filius ; hambre, of 

 fames ; and Felipo de Urre, and even Utre, of the Conquista- 

 dor Philip von Hutten ; that the Tamanacs in America 

 have substituted choraro for soldado ; and the Jews in China, 

 lalemeiohang for Jeremiah. (See above, vol. iii. p. 254 — 

 257, 276, 277, 280 j and vol. iv ; p. 340 and 478.) Analogy 

 and a certain etymological tact must guide geographers in 

 researches of this kind, in which they would be exposed to 

 serious errors, if they were not to study at the same time the 

 respective situations of the upper and lower tributary streams 

 of the same river. Our maps of America are overloaded 

 with names, for which rivers have been created ; as, in the 

 catalogues of organic beings called Sy sterna Nature , a plant, 



