O R O 
O K O 
But this queftion, like every thing relative to phyfic?! di- 
menfions, is too vague. The mouth of the Plata, which 
extends to twenty-three geographical miles, is obvioufly 
the larged:; but, when compared with others, this river, 
like tliofe of England, is of moderate length, and its fhal- 
lownefs at Buenos-Ay'res impedes the upward navigation. 
The Amazons is the longed of rivers ; its courfe, from 
its origin, in Lake Lauricocha, to its eduary, being feven 
hundred and twenty miles; but its breadth, in the pro¬ 
vince of Jaen de Bfaco-moros, near the cataraft of Ren- 
tama, where I meafured it, under the romantic mountain 
of Patachuma, fchrcely equals that of the Rhine at Mentz. 
The Oroonoko, at its mouth, feems to-be narrower than 
either the Plata or the Amazons. According to my af- 
tronomical obfervaiions, its courfe is only two hundred 
and lixty miles; but, in the mod remote corner of Guyana, 
at a hundred and forty miles from its junction with the 
lea, I found that, when its waters were mod elevated, 
this river was fixteen thoufand and two hundred feet wide. 
Its periodical floods occafion a rife of from forty-eight to 
fifty-two feet above its ordinary level.” 
Though the Oroonoko is formed on a larger fcale than 
the Nile, it prefents feveral analogies to that/ celebrated 
river; Inch as the Delta which is conflituted by the fub- 
dividons of its branches, a regular rife and fall, the large- 
nefs and number of its crocddiles, its precipitous courfe 
through mountains of granite and fyenite, and its more 
placid progrefs over extenfive plains. Its fource, u'e may 
add, is equally obfcure, or at lead equally unexplored. 
Near the falls of the Guaharibes, it is 16 narrow, that the 
natives crols it. on a (lender bridge of creeping plants. 
The Guaicas, a race of men who are remarked for their 
fmall flature and very white complexions, deter the tra¬ 
veller from advancing farther to the ead, by their ufe of 
poifoned arrows. M. Humboldt treats as fabulous the 
dory of the exidence of the Laguna Dorado, from which 
the Oroonoko is faid to ilfue, and which is laid down in 
Arrowfmith’s map as meafuring twenty miles in length. 
About five degrees to the wed of this fuppofed fource, is 
a fmall reedy lake, which may probably have given rife 
to the popular tale of El Dorach; fince in the centre of 
it is fituated the ifland of Pumacena, compofed of mica¬ 
ceous fchidus, or fome glittering rock. 
The beauty and grandeur of the banks of the Oroonoko 
furpafs ail defcription. Forefls of the mod fuperb ver¬ 
dure are crowded with birds and monkeys of the mod 
various and brilliant colours ; and fametimes immenle 
plains form an horizon of twenty or thirty leagues. The 
annual inundation of the Oroonoko begins in April and 
ends in Augud, and in the northern part fometimes ex¬ 
tends for twenty or thirty leagues, during a length of 200. 
This grand extent it will retain for the whole month of 
September. In Oftober the flood declines; and the river 
is lowed in February. 
Of the favageg on the Oroonoko, Gumilla publiflted, in 
1745, an intereding account. The nation of the Caberres 
exceeds the Caribs in courage and power. They are fa¬ 
mous for the ufe of a mortal poifon; and in his time were 
fituated on the Guaviar. The Otomacks, iivthe fame quar¬ 
ter, raife their dead after the expiration of twelve months, 
and.tranfport the bones to a general tomb. Their wo¬ 
men aflerted, that to cover their nakednefs infpired them 
with fiiame, as it led to. ideas of turpitude unknown 
before. The Otomacks are accudomed to eat earth, as 
Humboldt has recently obferved ; but, in faff, they only 
preferve their grain, fifli, turtle, &c. in earth, and eat 
the whole mingled, fo that a ftranger would imagine that 
they devoured earth. This is done with a view to keep 
their viftuals freflt; and the pieces afterwards dug from 
the. pits referable bricks. Mod of the tribes are fmall, 
from 5co to 2000 warriors ; but the Caribs boad of 12,000, 
and the Caberres were more numerous. The mouth, or 
main channel, of the Oroonoko, is laid do\vn in lat. 8. 30. N. 
Ion. 59. 50. W. Pinkerton's Geography, vol.iii. Humboldt's 
View of Nature on the Oroonoko; Paris, 1808. 
VOL. XVII. No. 1216. 
789 
OROONOKO (Little). See Mocomoco. 
OROPE'SA, a town of Spain, in New Caflile : fifty- 
two miles wed of Toledo.—A town in the province of 
Valencia,- on the coad of the Mediterranean : thirty-two 
miles ead-north-ead of Segorbe. Lat. 40. 8. N. Ion. o. 4. W. 
OROPE'SA, a town of South America, capital of the 
jurifdidiion of Cochabamba, fituated in a valley, on a fmall 
river. The inhabitants carry on confiderable trade in corn 
and fruit, great quantities of both being produced in the 
valley of Cochabamba, where the town is fituated. It is 1 50 
miles north-wed of La Plata. Lat. 18. 15.S. Ion. 67. 6. W. 
OROP'PA, a mountain of Piedmont: fix miles north 
of Biella. 
ORO'PUS, in ancient geography, a town of Bceotia, 
on the borders of Attica, near the Euripus, which re¬ 
ceived its name from Oropus, a fon of Macedon. It 
was the frequent caufe of quarrels between the Boeotians 
and the Athenians, whence fome have called it one of the 
cities of Attica, and was at lad confirmed in the pofi’eflion 
of the Athenians by Philip king of Macedon. The in¬ 
habitants of this town were the find who reckoned Am- 
phiaraus in the number of the gods, and the other Greeks 
followed their example. At twelve ftacHa from the town 
was a temple of this deity. Ampiiiaraus excelled in the 
interpretation of dreams, and he delivered his prediftions 
in hexameter verfes. 
ORO'PUS, a town or Greece, in the ifland of Eubcea, 
in which was a temple confecrated to Apollo.—A town of 
the Peloponnefus, in the Argolide.—A town of Greece, 
in Thefprotia, of which Nicopolis was probably a part. 
OR.O'SA, a final 1 ifland of Scotland, in Loch Lunart. 
OROSE'X, a town of Sardinia, on the ealt coaft: fifty- 
eight miles eaft of Alghieri, and leventy-three north- 
north-eaft of Cagliari. 
ORO'SIUS (Paul), an hiftorian and divine, was a 
prieifl of Tarragona in Catalonia, and a dificiple of St. 
Auguftine. In the year 414 he was lent by two Spanilh 
bilhops into Africa, to requeft aid from St. Auguftine 
again (1 the heretics who dillurbed their churches. He 
remained a year with that prelate, and under him made a 
great progrefs in the ftudy of the feriptures. In 415 
Orofius was fent by him on a million to St. Jerome at Je-> 
rufalem, and brought from thence into Africa a number 
of relics. It was at the defire of St. Auguftine that he 
undertook a hiftory from the creation to ^he year 416, the 
purpofe of which was to refute the calumnies of the 
Pagans againft Chriftianily, who pretended that the fade 
of Rome by Alaric, and the other calamities of the; age, 
were unexampled evils brought ur*m the world through 
its influence. He therefore compiled, in feven books, a 
view of general hiftory, which he is faid to have entitled 
“ De Milena Hominum,” and which well deferves that 
name. In a work written with fuch an intention, and 
by a credulous and fuperftitious ecelefiaftic, nothing of 
hiftorica! judgment or fagacity could be expended; and, 
in faft, it abounds with vulgar errors and fables. It how¬ 
ever has its ufe, as preferving lome narrations not elfe- 
where to be met with,and adding to the'mafs of auth riry 
on dubious points. His ignorance of Greek has invc,; ved 
him in many miftakes. Orofius alfo wrote A Defence of 
Free Will againft: Pelagius; and he addrefled a Letter to 
St. Auguftine on the Errors of the Prifcillianifts and 
Origenilts. Several editions have been given of the Hif¬ 
tory of Orofius, of which the beft is that of II avert am p, 
Lyons, 4to. 1738. A tranllation of it by king Alfred the 
Great is extant, in which it is entitled Hormejht; but the 
reafon of that appellation is not known. Vo[)ii HiJ't. Lot. 
OROSPE'DA, a mountain of Spain, in the province of 
Grenada, on the borders of Seville. 
ORO'SWEG', a town of Hungary, the fee of a bilhop: 
eight miles north of Munkacz. 
OROSZLAN'KO, a caftle of Hungary : eight miles, 
weft of Bolelko. 
OROVIT'ZA, a town of Sclavonia: fourteen miles 
north-north-eaft of Pofzega. 
9 P OROU'ST, 
