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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Raleigh Passed The River Europa (Guarapo), And
"The Plains Of Saymas (Chaymas), Which Extend, Keeping The Same Level,
As Far
As Cumana and Caracas;" he stopped at Morequito (perhaps a
little to the north of the site of the villa
De Upata, in the missions
of the Carony), where an old cacique confirmed to him all the reveries
of Berrio on the irruption of foreign nations (Orejones and Epuremei)
into Guiana. The Raudales or cataracts of the Caroli (Carony), a river
which was at that period considered as the shortest way for reaching
the towns of Macureguarai and Manoa, situate on the banks of lake
Cassipa and of lake Rupunuwini or Dorado, put an end to this
expedition.
Raleigh went scarcely the distance of sixty leagues along the Orinoco;
but he names the upper tributary streams, according to the vague
notions he had collected; the Cari, the Pao, the Apure (Capuri?) the
Guarico (Voari?) the Meta,* and even, "in the province of Baraguan,
the great cataract of Athule (Atures), which prevents all further
navigation." (* Raleigh distinguishes the Meta from the Beta, which
flows into the Baraguan (the Orinoco) conjointly with the Daune, near
Athule; as he distinguishes the Casanare, a tributary stream of the
Meta, and the Casnero, which comes from the south, and appears to be
the Rio Cuchivero. All above the confluence of the Apure was then very
confusedly known; and streams that flow into the tributary streams of
the Orinoco were considered as flowing into this river itself. The
Apure (Capuri) and Meta appeared long to be the same river on account
of their proximity, and the numerous branches by which the Arauca and
the Apure join each other. Is the name of Beta perchance connected
with that of the nation of Betoyes, of the plains of the Casanare and
the Meta? Hondius and the geographers who have followed him, with the
exception of De L'Isle (1700), and of Sanson (1656), place the
province of Amapaja erroneously to the east of the Orinoco. We see
clearly by the narrative of Raleigh (pages 26 and 72), that Amapaja is
the inundated country between the Meta and the Guarico. Where are the
rivers Dauney and Ubarro? The Guaviare appears to me to be the Goavar
of Raleigh.) Notwithstanding Raleigh's exaggeration, so little worthy
of a statesman, his narrative contains important materials for the
history of geography. The Orinoco above the confluence of the Apure
was at that period as little known to Europeans, as in our time the
course of the Niger below Sego. The names of several very remote
tributary streams were known, but not their situation; and when the
same name, differently pronounced, or not properly apprehended by the
ear, furnished different sounds, their number was multiplied. Other
errors had perhaps their source in the little interest which Antonio
de Berrio, the Spanish governor, felt in communicating true and
precise notions to Raleigh, who indeed complains of his prisoner, "as
being utterly unlearned, and not knowing the east from the west." I
shall not here discuss the point how far the belief of Raleigh, in all
he relates of inland seas similar to the Caspian sea; on "the imperial
and golden city of Manoa," and on the magnificent palaces built by the
emperor Inga of Guyana, in imitation of those of his ancestors at
Peru, was real or pretended.
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