The voyage of M. de la Condamine, in 1793, down the Maranon, from the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, to the Atlantic Ocean, threw a great light on the geography of this famous river, since which period no traveller of any note has undertaken this dangerous and fatiguing journey, for scientific purposes alone. A stronger motive than the mere love of science induced a lady to venture herself on the immeasurable expanse of the Maranon. Madame Godin des Odonnois, the wife of M. Godin, a brother of the celebrated mathematician of that name, had received advices from her husband, that it would be necessary to embark with her family on this perilous voyage. Actuated by the spirit of conjugal affection, she committed herself to the bosom of the river, in 1769. In this expedition the greater part of the company who went with her, perished, having lost their way in the trackless forests of the country; after the most inconceivable struggles, she regained the borders of the river, and sailed down it to the ocean. The narrative of the disasters which befel her is one of the most affecting relations ever penned by the hand of man; and her conduct exhibits a picture of the fortitude which woman is capable of exerting, in situations under which the mind of the bravest of the other sex fails. From Madame Godin alone, this noble river might be named the Amazons. One of the extraordinary circumstances respecting this river, is the pororoca, or bore, a sudden efflux of the waters, which rush like a moving wall, twelve or fifteen feet in height, and sweep every thing before them; the noise of this irruption may be heard for eight miles; it is chiefly observable at the Cape del Norte, at its confluence with the Arowary. This rising of the waters is observable in several rivers and arms of the sea, in the New and Old Worlds; the river Severn in England, and the bay or basin of Minas in Nova Scotia, are, with that of the Ganges in India, among the most remarkable. The waters of the Maranon run with such velocity, that they are unmixed with the salt of the ocean, 80 leagues from the mouth. Maynas contains several other rivers besides the Lauricocha, the most noted of which are the _Napo_, issuing from Cotopaxi, which receives several other streams, and after a course of 200 leagues, falls into the Maranon. Father de Acuna insisted that this was the true Amazons.