53 
CHARTS OP VESPPCCI. 
pvemor of Smito Tbome del Angostura, displayed an ex- 
treme ardour for reaching the imaginary lake of Manoa. 
Anmuicaipi, an Indian of tlie nation oi’ the Ipurucotos, 
went down tlio liio Carony, and by his folse narrations 
inflamed the imagination of the Spanish colonists. He 
showed them in the southern sky the Clouds of MageUan, 
the whitish light of which he said was the reflection of the 
argentilerous rocks situate in the middle of the Laguna 
ianina. J his was describing in a very poetical manner the 
splendour of tlie micaceous and talky slates of his country! 
Anothorlndianclncf, known among the Caribs of Essequibo 
by the name M Capitan Juraclo, vainly attempted to unde- 
Centurion. Eruitless attempts were 
made by the Caiira, and the llio Paragua ; and several hun- 
dred persons perished miserably in these ra.sh enterprises, 
trom which, however, geography has derived some advan- 
Eodriguez and Antonio Santos (1775— 
/feO) were einployed by the Spanish governor. Santos, 
proceeding by the Carony, the Paragua, the Paraguainusi, 
the Anocapra, and the mountains of Pacaraymo and Quimi- 
lopaca, reached the Urarieiiera and the Eio Branco I 
tound some valpble infonnation in the journals of these 
perilous expeditions. 
The maritime charts which the Plorentine traveller Ame- 
rigo Vespucci,* constructed in the early years of the six- 
teenth centu^, as Piloto manor la Casa de Contratacion of 
Seville, and in which he placed, perhaps artfully, the words 
herrade Amerigo, have not reached our times. The most 
ancient monument we possess of the geography of the New 
Continent,t is the map of the world by John Ruysch, 
anne^d to a Roman edition of Ptolemy in 1508. We 4ere 
nnd lucatan and Honduras (the most southern part of 
Mexico)^ figured as an island, by the name of Culicar. 
lie died in 1,')I2, as Mr. Mnfioz has proved by the documents of the 
archives of S.mancas, (WH. del NueroMando^oh i, p i;!) VrZ 
boschif StoTia aellfi Ltitleratuva., ^ 
t See the learned researches of M. Waickenaer, in the Bibliograpkie 
m "r ’ O" -aps added to Ptolemy 
m 1506 ne find no trace of the discoveries of Columbus. ^ 
; No dmibt the lands between Uucatan, Cape Gracias i Dios and 
&r(’l50oT*‘ ^ (1502 and 1503), by Solis, and bj 
