468
GEOGRAPHICAL
ERRORS.
merable swarms of ants during the navigation o f the Cassiq u i a r e ; and the t o l d o , or r o o f of palm-leaves, beneath which w e were again d o o m e d to remain stretched o u t during twenty-two days, was with difficulty cleared of these insects. W e e m p l o y e d part o f the m o r n i n g in repeating t o t h e inhabitants of Esmeralda the questions we had already p u t t o t h e m , r e s p e c t i n g the existence o f a lake t o w a r d s t h e east. W e s h o w e d c o p i e s o f the maps o f Surville and L a C r u z to o l d soldiers, w h o had been posted in t h e mission ever since its first establishment. T h e y laughed at t h e supposed c o m m u n i c a t i o n o f the O r i n o c o with t h e R i o Idapa, and at the ‘ W h i t e Sea,’ which the former river was represented to cross. What we politely call geographical fictions they t e r m e d "lies o f the old w o r l d " (mentiras de p o r allĂ ). T h e s e g o o d people c o u l d n o t c o m p r e h e n d how m e n , in m a k i n g t h e m a p o f a country which they had never visited, could pretend to know things ill minute detail, o f which persons w h o lived on the spot were ignorant. T h e lake Parima, the Sierra M e y , and the springs which separate at t h e point where they issue from the earth, were entirely u n k n o w n at Esmeralda. W e were repeatedly assured that n o o n e h a d ever b e e n to t h e east of t h e R a n d a l o f t h e G u a h a r i b o s ; and that beyond that point, a c c o r d i n g t o t h e opinion of some of the natives, the Orinoco descends like a small torrent from a group o f mountains, inhabited by the C o r o t o Indians. f a t h e r Gili, w h o was living on the banks of t h e O r i n o c o w h e n t h e e x p e d i t i o n o f t h e b o u n d a r i e s arrived, says expressly, " t h a t Don Apollinario Diez was sent in 1765 to a t t e m p t the discovery of the source o f t h e O r i n o c o ; that he found the river, east of Esmeralda., full o f s h o a l s ; that he returned for want of p r o v i s i o n ; and that he learned nothing, absolutely nothing, of the existence o f a lake." This statement perfectly accords with what I heard myself thirty-five years later at Esmeralda. The probability of a fact is powerfully shaken when it can be proved t o b e totally u n k n o w n on the very spot where it o u g h t t o b e k n o w n best ; and when those by whom the existence o f the lake is affirmed contradict each other, not in the least essential circumstances, but in all that are the most important.