785 



the country, in which geographers have succes-* 

 sively placed an inland sea (Mar Blanco), and 

 the different lakes which are connected with the 

 fable of el Dorado de la Parime. We find first 

 the Rio Carony, which is formed by the union * 

 of two branches of almost equal magnitude, the 

 Carony, properly so called, and the Rio Paragua. 

 The missionaries of Piritu call the latter river a 

 lake (laguna): it is full of shoals, and little cas- 

 cades ; but, " passing through a country entirely 

 flat, it is subject at the same time to great inun- 

 dations, and it's real bed (su verdadera caxa) can 

 scarcely be discovered-f ." The natives have given 

 it the name of Paragua or Par ava J, which means 

 in the Carribbee language sea, or great lake. 

 These local circumstances and this denomina- 

 tion no doubt have given rise to the idea of trans- 

 forming the Rio Paragua, a tributary stream of 

 theCarony, into a lake called Cassipa, on account 

 of the Cassipagotoes who lived in those coun- 



* Near the mission of San Pedro de las Bocas (between 

 San Sebastian de Abaratayme and Santa Magdalena de Cu- 

 rucay), six leagues north-east of the Villa de Bareeloneta. 



f Caulin, p. 60. These observations of the author of the 

 Corografiq, are so much the more remarkable, as he was en- 

 tirely ignorant of the existence of a lake Cassipa on our maps. 

 + Gili, vol. i, p. 323. 



§ Raleigh, p. 64, 69. I always quote, when the contrary 

 is not expressly said, the original edition of 1596. Have 

 these tribes of Cassipagotoes, Epuremei, and Orinoqueponi, 

 so often mentioned by Raleigh, disappeared ? or did some 

 VOL. V. 3 E 



