CONFUSION OF NAMES.
377
T h e Indians, I repeat, are excellent g e o g r a p h e r s ; t h e y outflank t h e e n e m y , notwithstanding the limits traced u p o n the maps, in spite o f the forts and the estacamentos; and w h e n t h e missionaries see them arrive from such distances, a n d in different seasons, they begin to frame hypotheses o f supposed c o m m u n i c a t i o n s o f rivers. E a c h party has an interest in concealing what it k n o w s with c e r t a i n t y ; and t h a t love o f the mysterious, so general a m o n g the ignorant, c o n t r i b u t e s t o p e r p e t u a t e the d o u b t . I t m a y also b e observed that the various Indian nations, who frequent this labyrinth o f rivers, give them names entirely different; a n d that these names are disguised and lengthened b y terminations that signify ' w a t e r , ' ' great water,' a n d ' c u r r e n t . ' How o f t e n hare I been p e r p l e x e d b y t h e necessity o f settling the s y n o n y m e s o f rivers, w h e n I have sent for t h e most intelligent natives, t o interrogate them, through an interpreter, respecting the n u m b e r o f tributary streams, the sources o f the rivers, and the portages. T h r e e o r four languages being spoken in the s a m e mission, it is difficult t o make the witnesses agree. O u r maps are loaded with names arbitrarily shortened o r perverted. T o examine h o w far they may be accurate, we must be guided by the g e o graphical situation o f the continent rivers, I might almost say by a certain etymological tact. T h e Rio U a u p e , o r U a p e s o f the P o r t u g u e s e maps, is the Guapue o f the Spanish maps, and the Ucavari of t h e natives. T h e A n a v a of the old g e o g r a p h e r s is the A n a u a b u o f A r r o w s m i t h , and the Uanauhau or Guanauhu o f the Indians. The desire o f leaving n o void in the maps, in o r d e r t o g i v e t h e m an appearance o f accuracy, has caused rivers to be created, to which names have been applied that have n o t been recognized as s y n o n y m o u s . I t is only lately that travellers in America, in Persia, and in the Indies, have felt the importance o f being correct in the denomination o f places. W h e n we read the travels o f Sir W a l t e r Raleigh, it is difficult indeed to recognise in the ‘ lake o f M r e c a b o ’ t h e laguna o f Maracaybo, and in t h e ‘ M a r q u i s Paraco’ t h e name o f Pizarro, the destroyer o f the empire o f t h e Incas. T h e great tributary streams o f the Amazon are d e s i g nated by the missionaries by different names in their upper