236 
FABULOUS LUGEITD3. 
These last, situated between five and six degrees of north 
latitude, and a hundred leagues west of the Cordilleras o* 
New Grenada, in the meridian of Porto Cabello, are only 
twelve leagues distant from each other. It is surprising 
that their existence was not known to D’Anville, who, > n 
his fine map of South America, marks the inconsiderable 
cascades of Marimara and San Borja, by the names of th° 
rapids of Carichana and Tabaje. The Great Cataracts* divide 
the Christian establishments of Spanish Guiana into two 
unequal parts. Those situated between the Baudot 
Atures and the mouth of the river are called the Mission® 
of the Lower Orinoco ; the Missions of the Upper Orinoco 
comprehend the villages between the Haudal of Maypui' 0 ® 
and the mountains of Duida. The course of the Low 0 ' 
Orinoco, if we estimate the sinuosities at one-third of y 11 .' 
distance in a direct line, is two hundred and sixty nautic" 
leagues: the course of the Upper Orinoco, supposing i ta 
sources to be three degrees east of Duida, includes one hun* 
dred and sixty-seven leagues. 
Beyond the Great Cataracts an unknown land begin®' 
The country is partly mountainous and partly flat, receiving 
at once the confluents of the Amazon and the Orinoc 0 ' 
Prom the facility of its communications with the Bio Negf'J 
and Grand Para, it appears to belong still more to Bra 7 ' 1 
than to the Spanish colonies. None of the missionary 
who have described the Orinoco before me, neither Path 01 
Guinilla, Gili, nor Caulin, had passed the Baudal of ' 
pures. We found but three Christian establishments ab° u 
the Great Cataracts, along the shores of the Orinoco, i" 
extent of more than a hundred leagues ; and these tin -0 
establishments contained scarcely six or eight white perso"®’ 
that is to say, persons of European race. We cannot h 0 
surprised that such a desert region should have been 1 
all times the laud of fable and fairy visions. There, accor 
ing to the statements of certain missionaries, are fou" ^ 
races of men, some of whom have an eye iu the centre 
the forehead, whilst others have dogs’ heads, and m° ut ’j 
below their stomachs. There they pretend to have f°^’ 
all that the ancients relate of the Garamautes, of the A* 
maspes, and of the Hyperboreans. It would be an ° rl ’ , 
to suppose that these simple and often rustic missionar 1 
