words Paragua and Parime signify water, great water, lake, or sea, it is not surprising to find them so often repeated among nations at a distance from each other, the Omaguas on the Upper Marañon, the Western Guaranis, and the Caribs. In all parts of the world, as I have already remarked, the largest rivers are called by those who dwell on their banks “the River,” without any distinct and peculiar appellation. Paragua, the name of a branch of the Caroni, is also the name given by the natives to the Upper Orinoco. The name Orinucu is Tamanaki; and Diego de Ordaz first heard it pronounced in 1531, when he ascended the river to the mouth of the Meta. Besides the “Valley of Inundation,” above spoken of, we find other large lakes or expanses of water between the Rio Xumuru and the Parime. One of these belongs to the Tacutu river, and the other to the Uraricuera. Even at the foot of the Pacaraima mountains the rivers are subject to great periodical overflows; and the Lake of Amucu, which will be spoken of more in the sequel, imparts a similar character to the country at the commencement of the plains. The Spanish missions of Santa Rosa and San Bautista de Caudacacla or Cayacaya, founded in the years 1770 and 1773 by the Governor Don Manuel Centurion, were destroyed before the close of the century, and since that period no fresh attempt has been made to penetrate from the basin of the Caroni to the southern declivity of the Pacaraima mountains. The territory east of the valley of the Rio Branco has of late years been the subject of some successful examination. Mr. Hillhouse navigated the Massaruni as far as the bay of Caranang, from whence, he says, a path would have conducted the traveller in two days to the sources of the Massaruni, and in three days to streams flowing into the Rio Branco. In regard to the windings of the great river Massaruni, described by Mr. Hillhouse, that gentleman remarks, in a letter written to me from Demerara (January 1, 1831), that “the Massaruni beginning from its source flows first to the West, then to the North for one degree of latitude, afterwards almost 200 English miles to the East, and finally North and N.N.E. to its junction with the Essequibo.” As Mr. Hillhouse was unable to reach the southern declivity of the Pacarima chain, he was not acquainted with the Amucu Lake: he says himself, in his printed account, that “from the information he had gained from the Accaouais, who constantly traverse all the country between the shore and the Amazons river, he had become satisfied that there is no lake at all in these districts.” This statement occasioned me some surprise, as it was in direct contradiction to the views which I had formed respecting the Lake of Amucu, from which the Caño Pirara flows according to the narratives of Hortsmann, Santos, and Rodriquez, whose accounts inspired me with the more confidence because they agree entirely with the recent Portuguese manuscript maps. Finally,