778 



tains, or an interbranching of rivers, which have 

 figured there during ages. 



The fabulous traditions of Dorado and the 

 lake Parima having been diversely modified ac- 

 cording to the aspect to the countries to which 

 they were to be adapted, we must distinguish 

 what they contain that is real from what is 

 merely imaginary. To avoid entering here into 

 minute particulars, which will find a more proper 

 place in the Analysis of the Geographical Atlas, 

 1 shall begin first to call the attention of the 

 reader to those spots, which have been at various 

 periods the theatre of the expeditions undertaken 

 for the discovery of Dorado. When we have 

 learnt to know the aspect of the country, and 

 the local circumstances, such as they can now 

 be described, it will be easy to conceive how 

 the different hypotheses recorded on our maps 

 have taken rise by degrees, and have modified 

 each other. To oppose an error, it is sufficient 

 to recall to mind the variable forms, in which 

 we have seen it appear at different periods. 



Till the middle of the 18th century, all the 

 vast space of land comprised between the moun- 

 tains of French Guyana and the forests of the 

 Upper Oroonoko, between the sources of the 

 Carony and the river of Amazons (from 0° to 4° 

 of north latitude, and from 57° to 68° of longi- 

 tude), was so little known, that geographers 

 could place in it lakes where they pleased, create 



