Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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1700. D'Anville, First
Edition Of His America, 1748.) When D'Anville Learned From The
Expedition Of Solano That The Sources Of
The Orinoco, far from lying
to the west, on the back of the Andes of Pasto, came from the east,
From the mountains of Parima, he restored in the second edition of his
fine map of America (1760) the Laguna Parime, and very arbitrarily
made it to communicate with three rivers, the Orinoco, the Rio Branco,
and the Essequibo, by the Mazuruni and the Cujuni; assigning to it the
latitude from 3 to 4 degrees north, which had till then been given to
lake Cassipa.
I have now stated, as I announced above, the variable forms which
geographical errors have assumed at different periods. I have
explained what in the configuration of the soil, the course of the
rivers, the names of the tributary streams, and the multiplicity of
the portages, may have given rise to the hypothesis of an inland sea
in the centre of Guiana. However dry discussions of this nature may
appear, they ought not to be regarded as sterile and fruitless. They
show travellers what remains to be discovered; and make known the
degree of certainty which long-repeated assertions may claim. It is
with maps, as with those tables of astronomical positions which are
contained in our ephemerides, designed for the use of navigators: the
most heterogeneous materials have been employed in their construction
during a long space of time; and, without the aid of the history of
geography, we could scarcely hope to discover at some future day on
what authority every partial statement rests.
Before I resume the thread of my narrative, it remains for me to add a
few general reflections on the auriferous lands situate between the
Amazon and the Orinoco. We have just shown that the fable of El
Dorado, like the most celebrated fables of the nations of the ancient
world, has been applied progressively to different spots. We have seen
it advance from the south-west to the north-east, from the oriental
declivity of the Andes towards the plains of Rio Branco and the
Essequibo, an identical direction with that in which the Caribs for
ages conducted their warlike and mercantile expeditions. It may be
conceived that the gold of the Cordilleras might be conveyed from hand
to hand, through an infinite number of tribes, as far as the shore of
Guiana; since, long before the fur-trade had attracted English,
Russian, and American vessels to the north-west coast of America, iron
tools had been carried from New Mexico and Canada beyond the Rocky
Mountains. From an error in longitude, the traces of which we find in
all the maps of the 16th century, the auriferous mountains of Peru and
New Granada were supposed to be much nearer the mouths of the Orinoco
and the Amazon than they are in fact. Geographers have the habit of
augmenting and extending beyond measure countries that are recently
discovered. In the map of Peru, published at Verona by Paulo di
Forlani, the town of Quito is placed at the distance of 400 leagues
from the coast of the South Sea, on the meridian of Cumana; and the
Cordillera of the Andes there fills almost the whole surface of
Spanish, French, and Dutch Guiana. This erroneous opinion of the
breadth of the Andes has no doubt contributed to give so much
importance to the granitic plains that extend on their eastern side.
Unceasingly confounding the tributary streams of the Amazon with those
of the Orinoco, or (as the lieutenants of Raleigh called it, to
flatter their chief) the Rio Raleana, to the latter were attributed
all the traditions which had been collected respecting the Dorado of
Quixos, the Omaguas, and the Manoas.* (* The flight of Manco-Inca,
brother of Atahualpa, to the east of the Cordilleras, no doubt gave
rise to the tradition of the new empire of the Incas in Dorado. It was
forgotten that Caxamarca and Cuzco, two towns where the princes of
that unfortunate family were at the time of their emigration, are
situate to the south of the Amazon, in the latitudes seven degrees
eight minutes, and thirteen degrees twenty-one minutes south, and
consequently four hundred leagues south-west of the pretended town of
Manoa on the lake Parima (three degrees and a half north latitude). It
is probable that, from the extreme difficulty of penetration into the
plains east of the Andes, covered with forests, the fugitive princes
never went beyond the banks of the Beni. The following is what I
learnt with certainty respecting the emigration of the family of the
Inca, some sad vestiges of which I saw on passing by Caxamarca.
Manco-Inca, acknowledged as the legitimate successor of Atahualpa,
made war without success against the Spaniards. He retired at length
into the mountains and thick forests of Vilcabamba, which are
accessible either by Huamanga and Antahuaylla, or by the valley of
Yucay, north of Cuzco. Of the two Sons of Manco-Inca, the eldest,
Sayri-Tupac, surrendered himself to the Spaniards, upon the invitation
of the viceroy of Peru, Hurtado de Mendoza. He was received with great
pomp at Lima, was baptized there, and died peaceably in the fine
valley of Yucay. The youngest son of Manco-Inca, Tupac-Amaru, was
carried off by stratagem from the forests of Vilcabamba, and beheaded
on pretext of a conspiracy formed against the Spanish usurpers. At the
same period, thirty-five distant relations of the Inca Atahualpa were
seized, and conveyed to Lima, in order to remain under the inspection
of the Audiencia. (Garcilasso volume 2 pages 194, 480 and 501.) It is
interesting to inquire whether any other princes of the family of
Manco-Capac have remained in the forests of Vilcabamba, and if there
still exist any descendants of the Incas of Peru between the Apurimac
and the Beni. This supposition gave rise in 1741 to the famous
rebellion of the Chuncoes, and to that of the Amages and Campoes led
on by their chief, Juan Santos, called the false Atahualpa.
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