788 



(that of Hondius, Sanson, and Coronelli) was 

 also surrounded by mountains, and gave birth 

 to no river, while the lake Parima of La Cruz 

 and the modern geographers communicates 

 with the Upper Oroonoko, as the Cassipa with 

 the Lower Oroonoko # « 



I have stated the origin of the fable of the lake 

 Cassipa, and the influence it has had on the 

 opinion, that the lake Parima is the source of 

 the Oroonoko. Let us now examine what re- 

 lates to this latter basin, this pretended interior 

 sea, called Rupunuwini by the geographers of the 

 sixteenth century. In the latitude of four degrees 

 or four degrees and a half, (in which direction 

 unfortunately, south of Santo Thome del Angos- 

 tura to the extent of eight degrees, no astrono- 

 mical observation has been made -f) is a long 



* Those geographers, who have effaced the ancient lake 

 Parima from their maps, for instance Sanson {River of the 

 Amazons, 1680), de Lisle (Amer. Me'rid. 1700), d'Anville, in 

 the first edition of X Amfoique meridionale, and Robert de Vau- 

 gondi (Nouveau Monde, 1778), have religiously preserved a 

 lake Cassipa, the source of the Carony and the Ami. D'An- 

 ville, in the second edition of his map, indicates at the same 

 time both the lakes Cassipa and Parima. La Cruz was too 

 well informed by the accounts of the missionaries respecting 

 the sources of the Caura, not to omit the Cassipa. 



f If a line be drawn (west of Cayenne) through the falls 

 of the Maroni and the Essequebo, Vieja Guayana, and the 

 right bank of the Oroonoko, to Esmeralda, and thence through 

 the confluence of the Rio Branco with the Rio Negro, along 

 the latter river as far as Vistoza (on the left bank of the , 

 Amazon), and to the sources of the Oyapok, we shall have 



