846 



La Cruz Olmediila, the Spanish geographer, 

 followed, in 1775, the example set by D'Anville. 

 The ancient lake Parima, situate under the 

 equator, was entirely inclependant of the Oroo- 

 noko ; the new, which appeared in the place of 

 the Cassipa, and in the same form of a quadri- 

 lateral, the longest sides of which lie from south 

 to north # , furnishes the most singular hydraulic 

 communications. The Oroonoko, in the map 

 of La Cruz, under the names of Parima and 

 Puruma (Xuruma?), takes it's rise in the moun- 

 tainous land between the sources of the Ventuari 

 and of the Caura (in the latitude of five degrees, 

 and in the meridian of the mission ofEsmeralda), 

 from a small lake called Ipava. This lake 

 would be placed in my itinerary map to the 

 north-east of the granitic mountains of Cunevo, 

 a situation which sufficiently proves, that it 

 might be the origin of a tributary stream of the 

 Rio Branco or the Oroonoko, but not the origin 

 of the Oroonoko itself. This Rio Parima, or 

 Puruma, after a course of forty leagues east- 

 north-east, and sixty leagues south-east, receives 

 the Rio Mahu, which is already known to us as 

 one of the principal branches of the Rio Branco ; 

 it then enters into the lake Parima, which is 

 supposed to be thirty leagues long and twenty 



* The greater axis of the real lake of Parima was from 

 east to west, 



