878 
LOCATION OF EL DOHA DO. 
and lower course. The Iza is called, higher up, Putumayo , 
the Jupura towards its source bears the name of Caqueta. , 
The researches made in the missions of the Andaquies on 
the real origin of the Rio Negro hare been the more 
fruitless because the Indian name of the river was un- 
known. I heard it called G-uainia at Javita, Maroa, and 
San Carlos. Southey, in his history of Brazil, says ex- 
pressly that the Rio Negro, in the lower part of its course, 
is called Guiani, or Curana, by the natives ; in the upper 
part, Ueneya. It is the word Gueneya, instead of G-uainia ; 
for the Indians of those countries say indifferently Guara- 
nacua or Ouaranacua, Guarapo or Uarapo. 
The sources of the Rio Negro have long been an object 
of contention among geograpers. The interest we feel in 
this question is not merely that which attaches to the 
origin of all great rivers, but is connected with a crowd of 
other questions, that comprehend the supposed bifurcations 
of the Caqueta, the communications between the Rio Negro 
and the Orinoco, and the local fable of El Dorado, for- 
merly called Enim, or the empire of the Grand Paytiti. 
When we study with, care the ancient maps of these 
countries, and the history of their geographical errors, we 
see how by degrees the fable of El Dorado has been trans- 
ported towards the west with the sources of the Orinoco. 
It was at first fixed on the eastern declivity of the Andes, 
to the south-west of the Rio Negro. The valiant Philip 
de Urre sought for the great city of Manoa by traversing 
the Guaviare. Even now the Indians of San Jose de 
Maravitanos relate that, “ on sailing to the north-east for 
fifteen days, on the Guape or Uaupe, you reach a famous 
lagwna de oro, surrounded by mountains, and so large that 
the opposite shore cannot he discerned. A ferocious nation, 
the Guanes, do not permit the collecting of the gold of a 
sandy plain that surrounds the lake. Father Acunha places 
the lake Manoa, or Yenefiti, between the Jupura and the 
Rio Negro. Some Manoa Indians brought Father Fritz, 
in 1687, several slips of beaten gold. This nation, the 
name of which is still known on the banks of the Urarira, 
between Lamalongo and Moreira, dwelt on the Yurubesh. 
La Condamine is right in saying that this Mesopotamia, 
between the Caqueta, the Rio Negro, the Yurubesh, and 
