eaelt ideas of the oeisoco. 
61 
f from soutli to north, like the river Magdalena. The 
th ^ streams, therefore, whieh were made to issue from 
ne lake Cassipa, the Caronv, the Arui, and the Caura, then 
ook the direction of the latitude, while in nature tlmy follow 
“at of a meridian. Beside the lakes Panina and Cassipa, a 
nrd Was traced upon the maps, from which the Aprouague 
fApurw aea) was made to issue. It was then a general prac- 
'ce among geograjihers to attach all rivers to great lakes. 
7 this means Ortelius joined the Nile to the Zaire or Rio 
°“go, and the Vistula to the Wolga and the Dnlepm-. 
Mexico, in the pretended kingdoms of Quivira 
j “d Cibola, rendered celebrated by the falsehoods of the 
nonk hlarcos de Niza, a great inland sea was imagined, 
•■oin which the Rio Colorado of California was made to 
issue.* 
La 
A branch of the Rio Magdalena flowed to the 
^aguna de Maracaybo; and the lake of Xarayes, near 
fh A “ southern Dorado was placed, communicated with 
® Amazon, the Miarif (Meary), and the Rio de San Pran- 
isco. These hydrographic reveries have for the most part 
j '®^ppeared ; but the lakes Cassipa and Dorado have been 
15 O’ 
]S snnultaiieously preserved on our maps. 
tollow'ing the history of geography we sec the Cassipa, 
gured as a rectangular parallelogram, enlarge by degrees at 
had Mexican Dorado, where it was pretended, that vessels 
chanA on the coasts [of New Albion ?] loaded with the mer- 
Prav V and China (Gomara, Hint. Gen,, p. 117), and where 
afm (hhe Huten in the country of the Oniagnas) had seen from 
'nhah'f* S'lded roofs of a great town, one of the Siete Ciudades. The 
“'“nt* have great dogs, “en los quales quando se mudan cargan su 
{Jfen-era, dec. VI, p. 157, 206.) Later discoveries, however, 
I® "n ^yubt that there existed a centre of civilization in those countries. 
T As this river flows into the gulf of MaranhSo (so named because some 
n "®!* nn'onists, Rifault, De Vanx, and llavadicre, believed they were 
the hi month of the Marafion or .Amazon), the ancient maps call 
Paul "On. or Maran/iam. (See the maps of Hondius, and 
of tl” Porlani.) Perhaps the idea that Pin 90 n, to whom the discovery 
celeb? /Tv t*"®’ landed in these parts, since become 
this ^ f • ^''® ®'''l"'t'ooh of Ayres da Cunha, lias also contributed to 
eeBt/'n- Meary appears to me identical with the Rio de Vi- 
fortv 1 Diego Ribeyro, which is more than one hundred and 
of M from that of the modern geographers. At present the name 
oraflon hag remained at the same time to the river of the Amazons, 
° ‘t province much farther eastward, the capital of which is Maran. 
or St. Louis de Maraflon. 
