2. Orenoque, by some call’d Raliana, from Sir Walter Raleigh, who endeavor’d to discover it, a River of the Province of Guiana, whose Head or Spring is not yet discover’d: It is said to be Navigable a thousand Miles together by the tallest Ships, and no less than two thousand by Pinnaces and smaller Vessels, and dischargeth it self likewise into the North Sea by sixteen several Channels or Mouths, making thereby several Islands; some whereof are said to be of good bigness, and to lie at a distance of a hundred Miles or more one from the other.
3. Maragnon, a River of a yet larger Course than any of the former, being, as ’tis said, no less than six thousand Miles from its Head, which is out of the Andes in Peru, to its Fall, which is likewise into the North Sea about Cape Blanco, by a Channel of seventy Leagues in breadth.
4. Rio de la Plata, otherwise call’d Paraguay, a River of two thousand Miles Course, and falling as the rest into the North Sea, by a Channel of threescore Miles over, and about thirty Degrees Southward of the Line, towards the Straights of Magellane.
The Mountains Andes.
The Andes, or Mountains before mention’d being the most noted, and biggest of all America, and indeed of the whole World, and thought by Cortesius to be the same with Sephar, spoken of in the tenth Chapter of Genesis, run above a thousand Leagues in length from Timama, a Town of New Granada in the Province of Popayan, and are in the narrowest place about twenty Leagues broad; and also of equal heighth with, if not higher than Caucasus it self: the Ascent to them is unpassable, except in very few places, by reason of craggy Precipices, and wild overgrown pathless Woods, serving onely for a shelter to Serpents and other poysonous Animals, which are there so numerous, that a whole Army of one of the Kings of Peru is reported to have been destroy’d by them; and what-ever People there are inhabiting in any of these Woods and Fastnesses, must needs be in the very utmost degree of rude and brutish salvageness.
Some divide Southern America into Peruviana and Brasiliana: Peruviana they subdivide into Terra Firma and Peru; Brasiliana into Brasile and Paraguay: But the most receiv’d and commodious Division is into these particular Provinces following, all of them wealthy and large, viz. 1. Castella Aurea, or Golden Castile, 2. Nova Granada, or The New Kingdom, as they call it. 3. Peru, specially so call’d. 4. Chile. 5. Paraguay. 6. Brasile. 7. Guiana. 8. Lastly Paria, with some lesser Islands adjoyning to all or most of these Provinces, and commonly reckon’d as part of them.
CHAP. II.
Castella Aurea, otherwise call’d Terra Firma.
Description of Castella Aurea.
Castella de Oro, as the Spaniards call it, or Golden Castile, taketh up all the rest of the Isthmus, or Straight of Darien, which hath not been yet spoken of, being bounded Eastward, and to the North-East, with the Atlantick Ocean; and on the West with Mare del Zur, and some part of Veragua; Southward it hath the new Kingdom of Granada. It is call’d sometimes Terra Firma, because it was one of the first parts of firm Land which the Spaniards touch’d upon, after they had pass’d so many Islands, as seem’d for some time to block up, and bar them from the Continent of America: It is subdivided into these inferior Provinces or Countreys, viz. 1. Panama. 2. Darien. 3. Nova Andaluzia. 4. St. Martha. 5. Lastly, the little Province De la Hacha.