4:2 
EXPEDITIOiT OP HEEBEEA. 
de Ordaz received from the natives the first idea of civilized 
nations, who inhabited the table-lands of the Andes of 
Grranada; “of a very powerful prince with one eye (Indio 
tiierto), and of animals less than stags, but fit for riding 
like Spanish horses.” Ordaz had no idea that these animals 
were llamas (ovejas del Peru). Must we admit that llamas, 
which were used in the Andes to draw the plough and as 
bea.sts of burden, but not for riding, were already common, 
on the north and east ot Quito ? I find that Orellana saw 
these animals at the river Amazon, above the confluence of 
the Rio Negro, consequently in a climate very dift'erent 
from that of the table-land of the Andes. The table of an 
army of Oinaguas mounted on llamas seiwed to embellish 
the account gii'cn by the fellow-travellers of Pelipe de Urro 
their adventurous expedition to the Upper Caqueta. 
We cannot be sufficiently attentive to these traditions, 
which seem to prove that the domestic animals of Quito 
and Peru had already begun to descend the Cordilleras, and 
spread themselves by degrees in the eastern regions of 
South America. 
Herrera, the treasurer of the expedition of Ordaz, was 
sent in 1553, bj' the governor Oerommo de Ortal, to pursue 
the discovery of the Orinoco and the Meta. He lost nearly 
thirteen months between Punta Barina and the confluence 
ot the Carony in constructing flat-bottomed boats, and 
making the preparations indisjicnsable for a long voyage. 
M^e cannot read without astonishment the narrative of 
those daring enterprises, in which three or four hundred 
horses were embarked, to be put ashore whenever cavalry 
could act on one ot the banks. W e find in the expedition 
ot Herrera tho same stations which we already knew ; the 
denominations. If other names be added, tliey change in every province- 
Ihus tile Rio Turiva, near the Encaramada, has five names in the different 
parts of its course. Tiie Upper Orinoco, or Paragua, is called by the 
Maejuiritares (near Esmeralda) Maraguaca, on account of the lofty 
mountains of this name near Duida. Gili, vol. i, p. 22 and 364. 
Caulin, p. 75.) In most of the names of the rivers of .America we recog- 
nize the root water. Thus tjacu in the Peruvian, and veiti in the May- 
pure tongue--, signify water and river. In the Lule dialect 1 find fo, 
water ; foyavalto, a river \ Joysi, a lake ; as in Persian, ab is water ; abi 
frat, the river Euphratea ; abdan, a lake. The rooticafcr is preserved in 
the derivatives. 
