Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Indians Do Not Fail To
Mention Them, When They Would Prove To Travellers That The Upper
Orinoco, To The East Of San Fernando, Is A Distinct River Which Falls
Into The Orinoco, And That The Real Origin Of The Latter Must Be
Sought In The Sources Of The Guaviare.
The astronomical observations made in the night of the 25th of April
did not give me the latitude with satisfactory precision.
The latitude
of the mission of San Fernando appeared to me to be 4 degrees 2
minutes 48 seconds. In Father Caulin's map, founded on the
observations of Solano made in 1756, it is 4 degrees 1 minute. This
agreement proves the justness of a result which, however, I could only
deduce from altitudes considerably distant from the meridian. A good
observation of the stars at Guapasoso gave me 4 degrees 2 minutes for
San Fernando de Atabapo. I was able to fix the longitude with much
more precision in my way to the Rio Negro, and in returning from that
river. It is 70 degrees 30 minutes 46 seconds (or 4 degrees 0 minutes
west of the meridian of Cumana).
On the 26th of April we advanced only two or three leagues, and passed
the night on a rock near the Indian plantations or conucos of
Guapasoso. The river losing itself by its inundations in the forests,
and its real banks being unseen, the traveller can venture to land
only where a rock or a small table-land rises above the water.
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