793 



west. This direction too was always assigned 

 to the White Sea, by lengthening it in the direc- 

 tion of the latitude, till the beginning of the six- 

 teenth century*. Now this White Sea is no- 

 thing but the Rio Parima, which is still called 

 the White River, Rio Branco, or Rio del Aguas 

 blancas, and runs through and inundates the 

 whole of this land. The name of Rupunuwini -f- 

 is given to the White Sea on the most ancient 

 maps ; which identifies the place of the fable, 

 since of all the tributary streams of the Rio Es- 

 sequebo the Rupunuwini is the nearest to the 

 lake Amucu Raleigh, in his first voyage 



* The latitudes of the lake Amucu and of the confluence 

 of the Uraricuera with the Rio Parima and with the Rio 

 Xurumu, differ very little ; but on account of the direction 

 of the Uraricuera (a western branch of the Rio Branco) , 

 which flows from west to east, the difference in the longitude 

 becomes considerable. The Valk de la Fnundacion, of which I 

 have spoken above, is three degrees and a half west of lake 

 Amucu and of the Rupunuwini, a circumstance which may 

 have given rise to a fabulous enlargement of the Mar Bianco. 



f See for instance the Terra Firma of Sanson, 1656. 

 (Hondius, in the map' of Guyana, 1599, writes by mistake 

 Foponowini.) 



% This identity of name between the lake Parima and a 

 tributary stream of the Essequebo had already attracted the 

 attention of D'Anville {Journal des Savans, 1150, p. 185), 

 but did not prevent this learned geographer from restoring 

 in the second edition of his Amerique meridionale the great 

 We Parima. This edition is of 1760. (Notice des Ouvrages 

 de Danville, par M. Barbie' du Bocage, p. 98.) 



