SOURCE or THE GREAT STREAMS. 
381 
between the five great tributary streams of the Orinoco and 
the Amazon ; the Guaviare, the Inirida, the Eio Negro, the 
Caqueta or Hyapura, and the Putumayo or Iza. 
The Meta, the Guaviare, the Caqueta, and the Putumayo, 
are the only great rivers that rise immediately from the 
eastern declivity of the Andes of Santa he, Popayan, and 
Pasto. The Vichada, the Zama, the Inirida, the Eio Negro, 
the Uaupe, and the Apoporis, which are marked in our maps 
as extending westward as far as the mountains, take rise at 
a great distance from them, either in the savannahs between 
the Meta and the Guaviare, or in the mountainous country 
which, according to the information given me by the natives, 
begins at four or five days’ journey westward of the missions 
of Javita and Maroa, and extends through the Sierra Tuhuny, 
beyond the Xie, towards the banks of the Issana. 
It is remarkable that this ridge of the Cordilleras, which 
contains the sources of so many majestic rivers, (the Meta, 
the Guaviare, the Caqueta, and the Putumayo,) is as little 
covered with snow as the mountains of Abyssinia from 
which flow' the w'aters of the Blue Nile ; but, on the con- 
trary, on going up the tributary streams which furrow the 
plains, a volcano is found still in activity, before you reach 
the Cordillera of the Andes. This phenomenon was disco- 
vered by the Franciscan monks, who go down from Ceja by 
the Eio Fragua to Caqueta. A solitary hill, emitting smoke 
night and day, is found on the north-east of the mission 
of Santa Eosa, and west of the Puerto del Pescado. This 
is the effect of a lateral action of the volcanos of Popayan 
and Pasto ; as Guacamayo and Sangay, situated also at the 
foot of the eastern declivity of the Andes, are the effect 
°f a lateral action produced by the system of the volcanos 
°f Quito. After having closely inspected the banks of the 
Orinoco and the Eio Negro, where the granite everywhere 
pierces the soil ; when we reflect on the total absence of 
Volcanos in Brazil, Guiana, on the coast of Venezuela, and 
Perhaps in all that part of the continent lying eastward of 
the Andes ; we contemplate with interest the three burning 
volcanos situated near the sources of the Caqueta, the Napo, 
a nd the Eio de Macas or Morona. 
The little group of mountains with which we became ao 
