Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Existence Of A Communication Of The Orinoco With The Amazon By The
Rio Negro, And A Bifurcation Of The Caqueta, Was Believed By Sanson,
And Rejected By Father Fritz And By Blaeuw:
It was marked in the first
maps of De l'Isle, but abandoned by that celebrated geographer towards
the end of his days.
Those who had mistaken the mode of this
communication hastened to deny the communication itself. It is in fact
well worthy of remark that, at the time when the Portuguese went up
most frequently by the Amazon, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare, and
when Father Gumilla's letters were carried (by the natural
interbranching of the rivers) from the lower Orinoco to Grand Para,
that very missionary made every effort to spread the opinion through
Europe that the basins of the Orinoco and the Amazon are perfectly
separate. He asserts that, having several times gone up the former of
these rivers as far as the Raudal of Tabaje, situate in the latitude
of 1 degree 4 minutes, he never saw a river flow in or out that could
be taken for the Rio Negro. He adds further, that a great Cordillera,
which stretches from east to west, prevents the mingling of the
waters, and renders all discussion on the supposed communication of
the two rivers useless. The errors of Father Gumilla arose from his
firm persuasion that he had reached the parallel of 1 degree 4 minutes
on the Orinoco. He was in error by more than 5 degrees 10 minutes of
latitude; for I found, by observation, at the mission of Atures,
thirteen leagues south of the rapids of Tabaje, the latitude to be 5
degrees 37 minutes 34 seconds.
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