A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Ports and Rivers.—Between the bay of Turyuassu and Point Tigioca there are upwards of twenty abundant rivers, each with its anchorage place for vessels of small burden, more or less commodious, either within or near their embouchures, the main part being within bays or spacious gulfs, commonly surrounded with mangroves, abounding in the guara, macarico, and other birds that exist upon shell-fish.

As almost all the rivers in this province run into the Amazons, we will speak of them in the order in which they enter that great recipient.

The river of the Amazons, also called Maranham by the Portuguese, and Guienna by some Indians, was discovered, after Pinson had passed its spacious outlet, in the interior of the continent, by his countryman Francisco Orellana, who descended by it from the mouth of the Napo to the ocean, in the year 1539, and, like the wondrous and fabulous statements of some of the first discoverers of new countries, he promulgated a story, that its margins were inhabited by warlike women, armed with bows, from which it improperly acquired the name by which it is universally known. In the year 1637, the Portuguese Captain Pedro Teyxeyra before mentioned, conducted a fleet of forty-seven canoes from Para up the Amazons, to the mouth of the Napo, and advanced up the latter as far as it was navigable. On his return, in the following year, he gave a circumstantial relation of both rivers, as did the Jesuit Christoval da Cunha, who returned with Teyxeyra from Quito, but neither of them met with any of the Amazons Orellana pretended to have seen. This river is, without exception, the largest in the world, having a course of upwards of four thousand miles. It is not designated in the whole of its extent by the names already mentioned. The Portuguese more frequently call it the Amazons as far as the embouchure of Rio Negro; from thence upwards the Solimoes, and, at the famous confluence of the Ucayale with the Tanguragua, it takes the appellation of Maranham. It was doubtful for some time which of these was its principal head. The first, unquestionably, has the more extensive course, and is wider at their union than the latter.

The Tanguragua issues from lake Hyauricocha, situated in ten and a half degrees of south latitude, in the district of Huanaco, about one hundred miles north-north-east of Lima. It runs north-north-west for the space of three hundred and fifty miles between the two cordilleiras of the Andes as far as the town of Jaen de Bracamoras, commencing with the name of the lake in which it originates. At Bracamoras, where it begins to be navigable, it receives the Chinchipe on the left, which comes from the north-west; and on the right the Chachapoyas, which flows from the south-east, both navigable. Here it inclines to the north-east till it receives the Santiago, formed by various torrents, precipitated from the mountains of Loxa. In this interval of one hundred and forty miles, nearly midway, the Tanguragua receives the Chuchunga on the right, navigable for ten miles. It should have been observed, that the port of Bracamoras is on its left bank, and that immediately below the town its waters are contracted between two mountains, and, running furiously, descend by various falls. Below the Chuchunga it flows through the narrow strait of Cumbinama, and afterwards by that of Escorregabragas, neither of which are very dangerous.

At the confluence of the Santiago, the Tanguragua is five hundred yards in width, and three miles further, running eastward, it begins to straighten, traversing the interior cordilleira of the Andes, and is reduced in the narrowest part to fifty yards. The current descends this contracted channel of six miles, denominated Pongo, in the space of one hour. At its termination is situated the city of Borja.

Seventy miles below Borja it receives on the left the Marona, which is not inferior to the Santiago, descending from the volcano of Sangay, and forty miles further, on the same side, the considerable Pastaca, which originates also in the cordillera.

Thirty-five miles below, the large Guallaga enters it, originating a little to the north of lake Chiquiacoba in 11° of latitude, in the district of Huanaco, which name it takes for a considerable space, describing numerous small windings. After it follows the river Chambyra, and then the Tigre, both flowing from the north-west, the latter having a course of three hundred miles.

Sixty miles below the embouchure of the Tigre, is the magnificent confluence of the Tanguragua, with the Ucayale. The Ucayale originates in the latitude of 18° south-east of the large lake Chucuito, otherwise Titicaca, and one hundred and twenty miles east-north-east of the city of Arica. It runs to the north and north-west, under the name of Benni, to its junction with the Apurimaco, in the latitude of 11°, where both their names are lost in that of the Ucayale.

The Apurimaco rises a few leagues north of the city of Arequipa, between the lake Chucuito and the Pacific Ocean, from which it is only distant about fifty miles; and runs northward, describing considerable windings, and gathering various other streams, amongst which the most important are the Pampas, on the left, in 13° 10′; the Urubamba, on the right, in 12° 15′; and the Montaro in 12° 6′, where it changes the direction towards the north-east. Previously to mingling its waters with the Benni it receives on the left the Perene, and on the right, ten miles above its mouth, the Pancartamba.

The Montaro issues from the lake Chinchayocha, in the district of Huanaco, in 11°, and flows for a considerable space to the south-east along the cordillera, describing extensive windings to its embouchure.