430
CIVILIZATION PROMOTED BY RIVERS.
branch o f the Caqueta c o m i n g from the south-east, and that t h e Rio N e g r o issued immediately from it. I t was only in the second edition o f his South America, that D ' A n v i l l e (witho u t r e n o u n c i n g that i n t e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n o f the Caqueta, b y means o f the Iniricha ( i n i r i d a ) , with the O r i n o c o and the Rio N e g r o ) describes the O r i n o c o as taking its rise at t h e east, near the sources of the Rio Branco, ami marks the Rio Cassiquiare as bearing the waters o f the U p p e r O r i n o c o t o the Rio N e g r o . I t is p r o b a b l e that this indefatigable and learned writer had obtained information on the manner o f t h e bifurcation from his frequent c o m m u n i c a t i o n s with the missionaries,* w h o were then the only geographers o f t h e m o s t inland parts o f the c o n t i n e n t s . H a d the nations o f the l o w e r r e g i o n o f equinoctial A m e r i c a participated in t h e civilization spread over the c o l d and alpine r e g i o n , that i m m e n s e M e s o p o t a m i a b e t w e e n t h e O r i n o c o and the A m a z o n would have favoured the d e v e l o p m e n t o f their industry, animated their c o m m e r c e , and a c c e lerated the progress o f social order. W e see everywhere in t h e old w o r l d the influence o f locality o n the dawning civilization o f nations. T h e island o f M e r o e b e t w e e n t h e A s t a b o r a s and the N i l e , the P u n j a b o f the Indus, the D o u a b o f the G a n g e s , and the M e s o p o t a m i a o f the Euphrates, furnish examples that are justly celebrated in the annals o f the human race. P u t the feeble tribes that w a n d e r in the savannahs and the woods o f eastern America, have profited little b y the advantages o f their soil, and the interbranchings o f their rivers. T h e distant incursions o f the Caribs, w h o w e n t up the O r i n o c o , t h e Cassiquiare, and the recently furnished, is the communication of the Rio Negro with the Orinoco; but we must not hesitate to admit, that we are not yet sufficiently informed of the manner in which this communication takes place." I was surprised to see in a very rare map, which I found at Rome (Provincia Quitensis Soc. Jesu in America, auctore Carolo Brentano et Nicolao de la Torre; RomĂŚ, 1745), that seven years after the discovery of Father Roman, the Jesuits of Quito were ignorant of the existence of the Cassiquiare. The Rio Negro is figured in this map as a branch of the Orinoco. * According to the Annals of Berredo, it. would appear, that as early as the year 1739, the military incursions from the Rio Negro to the Cassiquiare had confirmed the Portuguese Jesuits in the opinion that there was a communication between the Amazon and the Orinoco. Southey's Brazil, vol. i, p. 058.