Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3Humboldt, Alexander von
History
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3
Humboldt, Alexander von
Natural history -- South America; Scientific expeditions; South America -- Description and travel
journal of Rodriguez; it is the Cerro Acuquamo of Caulin, or rather of
his commentator. Hist. corogr. page 176.) They advised Hortsmann to
seek round the Rio Mahu for a mine of silver (no doubt mica with large
plates), of diamonds, and emeralds. He found nothing but rocky
crystals. His account seems to prove that the whole length of the
mountains of the Upper Orinoco (Sierra Parima) toward the east, is
composed of granitic rocks, full of druses and open veins, the Peak of
Duida. Near these lands, which still enjoy a great celebrity for their
riches, on the western limits of Dutch Guiana, live the Macusis,
Aturajos, and Acuvajos. The traveller Santos found them stationed
between the Rupunuwini, the Mahu, and the chain of Pacaraimo. It is
the appearance of the micaceous rocks of the Ucucuamo, the name of the
Rio Parima, the inundations of the rivers Urariapara, Parima, and
Xurumu, and more especially the existence of the lake Amucu (near the
Rio Rupunuwini, and regarded as the principal source of the Rio
Parima), which have given rise to the fable of the White Sea and the
Dorado of Parima. All these circumstances (which have served on this
very account to corroborate the general opinion) are found united on a
space of ground which is eight or nine leagues broad from north to
south, and forty long from east to west. This direction, too, was
always assigned to the White Sea, by lengthening it in the direction
of the latitude, till the beginning of the sixteenth century. Now this
White Sea is nothing but the Rio Parima, which is called the White
River (Rio Branco, or Rio del Aguas blancas), and runs through and
inundates the whole of this land. The name of Rupunuwini is given to
the White Sea on the most ancient maps, which identifies the place of
the fable, since of all the tributary streams of the Rio Essequibo the
Rupunuwini is the nearest to the lake Amucu. Raleigh, in his first
voyage (1595), had formed no precise idea of the situation of El
Dorado and the lake Parima, which he believed to be salt, and which he
calls another Caspian Sea. It was not till the second voyage (1596),
performed equally at the expense of Raleigh, that Laurence Keymis
fixed so well the localities of El Dorado, that he appears to me to
have no doubt of the identity of the Parima de Manao with the lake
Amucu, and with the isthmus between the Rupunuwini (a tributary stream
of the Essequibo) and the Rio Parima or Rio Branco. "The Indians,"
says Keymis, "go up the Dessekebe [Essequibo] in twenty days, towards
the south. To mark the greatness of this river, they call it the
brother of the Orinoco. After twenty days' navigating they convey
their canoes by a portage of one day, from the river Dessekebe to a
lake, which the Jaos call Roponowini, and the Caribbees Parime. This
lake is as large as a sea; it is covered with an infinite number of
canoes; and I suppose" [the Indians then had told him nothing of this]
"that this lake is no other than that which contains the town of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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