849 



mountains, and which is supposed to be the 

 effect of a subterraneous infiltration. 



Four years after the celebrated map of La 

 Cruz Olmedilla appeared the work of father 

 Caulin, who had accompanied the expedition of 

 the boundaries. This book was written on the 

 banks of the Oroonoko itself, in 1759; and 

 some notes were added subsequently in Europe. 

 The author, a monk of the Observance of Saint 

 Francis, is distinguished by his candor, and by 

 a spirit of criticism superior to that of all his 

 predecessors. He did not go himself beyond 

 the Great Cataract of Atures, but all that So- 

 lano and Ituriaga had collected, whether true 

 or doubtful, was at his disposal. Two maps, 

 traced by father Caulin in 1756, were reduced 

 in 1778 into one, and completed, according to 

 pretended discoveries, by Mr. de Surville, one 

 of the keepers of the archives in the secretary of 

 state's office. I have already observed, in speak- 

 ing of our abode at Esmeralda, the point nearest 

 the unknown sources of the Oronooko, how 

 arbitrary these alterations were. They were 

 founded on the false reports, by which the cre- 

 dulity of the governor Centurion and of don 

 Apollinario Diez de la Fuente, a cosmographer 

 destitute of instruments, knowledge, and books, 

 was daily flattered. 



The journal of father Caulin is in perpetual 

 contradiction with the map prefixed to it. The 

 vol. v. 3 I 



