BOOK of the world, be looked upon as considerable rivers. Here, LXXXVI. however, they belong merely to the third or fourth rank. The The Rio Negro, which comes from Terra Firma, and which merits the name of a great river, is swallowed up in the vast current of the Amazon. As far as the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon, the Portuguese term this latter river Rio des Solimoens or the fish river. It is not till afterwards that it is called the Amazon, to which many authors, in imitation of the Spaniards, substitute the denomination of Maranon or Orellana ;* but the poetical name of Amazon appears to us at once more harmonious, and more exempt from useless discussion. It is unnecessary to add that, in adopting this name, we do not admit the historical truth of certain exaggerated stories, in which the bravery of a band of women gave occasion for the revival of fictions equally extravagant as those of the Greeks respecting the existence of a nation of Amazons. The Madeira, or the river of the woods, is the greatest Madeira. of all the tributary streams of the Amazon. It is in some measure a principal branch of that river. It comes from as great a distance as the Ucayal; being formed by the union of the Mamore, of which the chief branch, called the Guapihi, takes its rise in Cochabamba, and from the river of the Chiquitos, denominated the river of Santa Madelena or Guapore. River of Para. The great rivers Topayos and Xingu come from the same quarter as the Madeira. They empty themselves into the Amazon. But as for the Tocantins or Para, which receives the Araguay, we ought to look upon its mouth as an independent outlet, although united to the Amazon by a branch of communication. The breadth of the Amazon varies from half a league to a league towards the termination of its course. Its depth exceeds 100 fathoms. But from its confluence with the Xingu, and near its mouth, it resembles the sea, and the * Travels of Father Girbal in the Mercurio Peruano. sea. eye can scarcely discern at the same moment both its banks. BOOK The tide is still felt at the distance of 250 leagues from the LXXXVI. M. de la Condamine imagines that the swell is occasioned by the tide of the preceding day, which is propagated up the river.* Near its mouth there is a dreadful struggle between the water of the river, which has a constant tendency to flow into the sea, and the waves of the ocean, which press forward to enter the bed of the river. We have already sketched a description of it. The second rank unquestionably belongs to that river The Rio de which the Spaniards denominate Rio de la Plata, or the la Plata. river of Silver, which is formed by the union of several great streams, among which the Parana is regarded as the chief branch. Indeed the natives themselves give this name to the whole river; the term la Plata being derived from the Spaniards. The Parana takes its rise in the environs of Villa del Carmen, to the north of Rio Janeiro, and is increased by a multitude of tributary streams, in the mountainous country through which it flows. What is called the great cataract of the Parana, not far from the town of Guayra, is a long rapid, where the river, for an extent of twelve leagues, rushes through rocky precipices, rent into the most frightful chasms.† When it has reached The Paraguay. the great plains, the Parana receives, from the north, the Paraguay, a very considerable river, which takes its rise on the plateau called Campos Paresis, and, by overflowing its banks in the rainy season, forms the great lake Xarayes, which consequently has only a temporary existence. The Paraguay, before it unites itself to the Parana, receives the Pilcomayo, a great river, which comes from the environs of Potosi, and serves for the navigation of the interior, and the conveyance of articles connected with the mines. The river la Plata likewise receives the Vermejo and Salado, in the direction of the Andes and the Uraguay, on the side of the Brazils. Its majestic course is full as *La Condamine, Relation, etc. p. 173. † Dobrizhofer, de Abiponibus, 206. It is navigable to sloops, without interruption, from lat. 16° 8. Brackenridge's Voyage to South America, II. 5. BOOK broad as that of the Amazon; and its immense opening LXXXVI. might even be considered as a gulf; for it almost equals the British channel in breadth. The Gulf of As the third great river of South America, we must next enumerate the Orono ko; but it is far from equalling the two others, either in the length of its course or the breadth of its stream. According to la Cruz d'Olmedilla, it rises in the little lake of Ypava in 5° 5' north latitude. From thence, by a bend of a spiral form, it enters the lake Parima, the existence of which has been ascertained by Don Solano, governor of Caraccas; but which, after all, owes its origin perhaps to the temporary overflowing of the river. If the country were a plain, we should compare the lake Parima with that of Xarayes; but as it is at least a hilly country, we imagine that this famous lake resembles the great and almost permanent inundation which is formed by the Red River in Louisiana.* After issuing from this lake by two mouths, as is asserted, it receives the Guyavari and several other rivers, and falls into the ocean across a large delta, after a course of 270, or, at the very most, 300 leagues. Nevertheless, at its estuary it has the appearance of a boundless lake, and for a great extent its fresh waters cover the ocean.. "Its green-coloured stream, and its waves dashing over rocks in milk white foam, are strongly contrasted with the deep blue of the sea, which is separated from them by a strongly marked line." The stream formed by the Oronoko, between the continent of South America and the island of Trinidad is so very strong, that vessels, even when favoured by a fresh breeze from the west, can scarcely overcome it. This solitary and dreadful place is called the Melancholy Gulf; Dragon's the entrance to which is formed by the Dragon's Mouth. There, in the midst of furious waves, enormous rocks raise their isolated heads, the remains, says M. de Hum Mouth, *See the Map of Louisiana, by W. Darby, Philadelphia, 1816. + M. de Humboldt's Description of Nature, II. p. 175. boldt, of that ancient dyke which formerly joined the is- BOOK land of Trinidad to the coast of Paria. It was at the as- LXXXVI. pect of these places that Columbus was convinced, for the first time, of the existence of the continent of America. "So prodigious a body of fresh water," thus reasoned that excellent observer of nature, “could not possibly have been accumulated, except by a river of very lengthened course. The land, therefore, which affords this water must be a continent, and not an island;" but, unacquainted with the general resemblance that exists between all the productions of the proper climate of the palm tree, Columbus imagined that the new continent was a continuation of the eastern coast of Asia. The refreshing mildness of the evening air, the etherial clearness of the sky, the balsamic fragrance of the flowers wafted to him by the land breeze, all combined to make him suppose that he could not be far distant from the garden of Eden, the sacred residence of our first parents. The Oronoko appeared to him to be one of the four rivers which, according to the sacred writings, issued from the terrestrial paradise to water and divide the earth. There are several cataracts on the Oronoko, amongst Cataracts which M. de Humboldt has distinguished those of May- of the pures and Astures. Neither of them is of any great elevation, and both owe their existence to an archipelago of little islands and rocks. These rapids or raudals, as the Spaniards call them, present an extremely picturesque appearance. "When the traveller descends from the village of Maypures to the brink of the river, after clearing the rock of Manimi he enjoys a truly astonishing prospect. At once a sheet of foam stretches out before him to fully a mile in extent. Masses of rock, of an iron black colour, rear their rugged fronts, like towers, out of this misty cloud. Every island, every rock, is ornamented with luxuriant trees, closely grouped together. A thick smoke constantly hangs suspended over the water; and through this foggy vapour, which rises from the foam, shoot up the tops of lofty palm trees. As soon as the BOOK burning rays of the setting sun mingle with this humid LXXXVI. cloud, the optical phenomena which are produced, actually give an air of enchantment to the scene. The coloured arches successively appear and disappear, and their image incessantly hovers before the eye at the mercy of the wind. During the long season of the rains, the murmuring waters have accumulated little islands of vegetable earth round the naked rocks. Adorned with the Drosera, the Mimosa, with its foliage of silver white, and a multitude of other plants, these form beds of flowers in the midst of frowning rocks.” The communications which exist between the Oronoko and the Amazon constitute one of the most astonishing phenomena of physical geography. The Portuguese made this fact known to the world above fifty years ago; but the systematic geographies leagued together to prove that such conjunctions of rivers were impossible. In the present day we no longer stand in need of either analogies or critical reasoning. M. de Humboldt has navigated both these rivers, and has examined this singular arrangement of the land. It is now certain that the Oronoko and the Rio Negro flow along a plateau, which, at this part, has no actual declivity; a valley then occurs; their waters flow into it, and they are united, and thus form the celebrated The branch Casiquiare, by means of which MM. Humboldt and Bonpland passed from the Rio Negro into the Oronoko. It is believed that there are still other communications between the Rio Negro and the different tributary streams of the Amazon. The lake Parima, if it have only a temporary existence, may very possibly empty itself both by the Oronoko and by the White River or Parima, which flows into the Amazon. Casiquiare Lakes without any outlet. Although in other respects so well watered, South America contains several rivers and streams which have no outlet. Such is the lake Titicaca, which, it is true, discharges itself into what is called the lakes das Aullagas; but neither one nor the other of these lakes empties itself into the sea. In Tucuman, and to the south-west of |