The Santo Domingo, and Portuguesa, are the largest of these streams, almost the whole of which unite above Santiago, and form a great body of water, which enters the Apure twelve leagues below that place, and twenty leagues north of the Orinoco. This immense quantity of water gives such an impulse to the Apure, that it forces the Orinoco before it for the space of four miles, although the latter river is there a league in width. The shock of the meeting of these two noble rivers is so great, that it occasions a great agitation in the middle of the Orinoco, forming dreadful eddies and whirlpools, at which the most dextrous Indians shudder. For the space of three leagues after the stream of the greater river has regained its force, the waters of the Apure are still distinguishable by their bright and crystal appearance, after which they are lost in the muddy current of the Orinoco. The exportation of cattle by way of Guiana takes place along the banks of these two rivers, on account of the excellent pasturage which they every where afford. All the traders of the eastern portion of Caraccas, are induced by the easy means of conveyance afforded by so many confluent streams, to send their coffee, cotton and indigo to Guiana, instead of sending them on the backs of mules to Caraccas, or Porto Cavello, and traveling 300 miles in a country often almost impassable, from the inundations of the rivers. The _Arauca_ is a river nearly as large as the Apure, and which rises in the mountains of Santa Fé, a short distance south of the sources of the latter, with which it holds a parallel course, through a country inundated by the Apure, and communicates with it near the Orinoco by several branches before it enters that river, thus forming some large and fertile islands. The _Rio Capanaparo_ rises in the marshy country south of the Arauca, and enters the Orinoco, south of the latter river by two mouths, at some distance from each other. South of this is another named the _Sinaruco_, which also rises in the marshes, and receives an accession to its waters from the overflowings of the Apure and the Arauca, entering the Orinoco between the Capanaparo and the Meta. The _Meta_ is a noble river, which rises in the mountain ridge opposite to Santa Fé de Bogota, and flowing through the province of Juan de los Llanos, and the district of Casanare, it receives many other large rivers, and enters the Orinoco, thirty leagues below the cataracts of Ature, and 125 leagues from Santo Tomé of Guiana. The Meta receives the _Pachiquiaro_, the _Upia_, the _Cravo_, and the _Pauto_ in Juan de los Llanos, and the _Ariporo_, the _Chire_, and the _Casanare_ (a fine river into which flow several others) in the province or district of Casanare. The Meta also receives several smaller streams in Varinas, and seems destined to form vast commercial relations between the kingdom of New Granada and the government of Caraccas.