16 
I'lEST BRAIS'CHES OF THE OKXNOCO. 
been s^tled for two hundred and fifty years on the banks 
ot the Orinoco ; and during this long period of time, accord- 
ing to a tradition which has been propagated from genera- 
tion to generation, the periodical oscillations of the river 
(the time of the beginning of the rising, and that when it 
attains its maximum) have never been retarded more than 
twelve or fifteen days. 
"ItV hen vessels that draw a good deal of water sail up to- 
ward Angostura in the months of January and February by 
favour ot the sea-breeze and the tide, they run the risk of 
taking the ground. The navigable channel often changes 
Its breadth and direction; no buoy, however, has yet blen 
laid down, to indicate any deposit of earth formed in the 
bed of the nver, where the waters have lost their original 
velocity. There exists on the south of Cape Barima, as well 
by the_ river of this name as by the Eio Moroca and several 
estuaries (esteres) a communication with the English co- 
lony of Essequibo. Small vessels can penetrate into the 
intonor as far as the Eio Poumaron, on which are the ancient 
settlements of Zealand and Middleburg. Heretofore this 
communication interested the government of Caracas only 
on account of the facility it furnished to an illicit trade- 
but since Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, have faUen into 
the hands of a more powerful neighbour, it fixes the atten- 
tion ot the Spimish Americans as being connected with the 
security of their frontiers. Eivers which have a course pa- 
rallel to the coast, and are nowhere farther distant from it 
than five or six nautical miles, charaeterize the whole of the 
shore between the Orinoco and the Amazon. 
, , leagues distant from Cape Barima, the great bed of 
the Onimco is divided for the first time into two branches 
ol two thousand toises in breadth. They are known by the 
Indian names of Zaciipana and Imataca. The first, which 
la the northernmost, communicates on the west of the islands 
Congrejos and del Burro with the bocas chicas of Lauran 
^uina, and Mariusas. As the Isla dei Burro disappears in 
the tune of great inundations, it is uuhappfty not suited to 
fortifications. The southern bank of 4e Lzo Imataca is 
tut by a hibvriath of little channels, into which the Eio 
Imataca and the Eio Aquire flow. A long series of littlo 
granitic hills rises in the fertile savannahs between the Imar- 
