38 
KEUOUS OF EAELY VOYAGEE3. 
accurate ideas, -would reproduce on their maps the Mar 
Dm’ado or Mar Blanco. Thus, notwithstanding the numerous 
proofs which I have lurnished since iny return from America, 
of the non-existence ot an inland sea the origin of the Ori- 
noco, a map has been published in my name,* on which the 
Laguna Pariina figures anew. 
I'rom the whol'e of these statements it follows, 1st, that 
the Laguna Eupunuwini, or Parima of the voyage of Ealeigh 
and ot the maps of Iloiidius, is an imaginary lake, formed 
by the lake Amiicut and the ti’ibutary streams ot the Ura- 
riciiera, which often overflow their banks; 2ndly, that the 
Laguna Parime of Surville’s map is the lalce Amucu, wliich 
gi\ e.s rise to the Eio Pirara and (conjointly with the Malm, 
the Tacutu, the Uraricucra, or Eio Parima, properly sO' 
called) to the Eio Eranco ; 3rdly, that the Laguna Parime 
of La Cruz is an imaginary swelling of the Eio Parime 
(contounded with the Orinoco) below the junction of the 
Mahu with the Xurumu. The distance from the mouth of 
the Alahu to that of the Tacutu is scarcely 0° 40' ; La Cruz 
enhu-ges it to T of latitude. lie calls the upper part of the 
Eio Branco (that which receives the Malm) Orinoco or 
Purmm. There can be no doubt of its being the Xurumu, 
one of the tributary streams of the Tacutu, which is well 
known to the inhabitants of the neighbouring fort of San 
Joaquim. All the names that figure in the fable ot El 
Dorado are found in the tributary streams of the Eio 
Branco. Slight local circumstances, joined to the remem- 
brances of the salt lake ot Mexico, more especially of the 
celebrated lake Manoa in the Dorado des Omaguas, have 
served to complete a picture created by the imagination of 
Ealeigh and his two lieutenants, Keymis and Masham. The 
inundations ot tho Eio Branco, I conceive, may be compared 
at the utmost to those of the Eed Eiver of Louisiana, 
between Nachitoches and Cados, but not to the Laguna 
de los Xarages, which is a temporary swelling of the Eio 
Paraguay. J 
* Carte de I'Amirigue, dressSe sur les Observations de M. de Ham- 
ioldt, par Pried. {Vienna, 1818.) 
+ Tliis is the lake Amaca of Surville and La Cruz. By a singular 
mistake, the name of this lake is transformed to a village on Arrowsuiith’* 
map. 
t Southey, vol. i, p. 130. These periodical overflowings of the Rio 
