From the confluence of the Ucayale and Tunguragua, the river decidedly receives the name of Maranon, and flows with a gentle current, and with an increasing expanse of waters into the Atlantic Ocean; its course lies mostly through the Portuguese territories of Amazonia, Guiana, and Grand Para. It receives from the Cordillera of Quito, the Caqueta and Apapures, which running into each other, become a noble river, under the name of the Yapura. The Napo, which was the river on which Orellana first embarked, also rises in Quito, as does the Putumayo, or Ica, which flows into the Maranon, between the Napo and the Yapura. East of these rivers, besides an immense number of smaller streams, the Maranon receives the great Rio Negro, by which it communicates with the Orinoco. Between the junction of the Negro and the Atlantic Ocean, innumerable streams rising in the deserts of Portuguese Guiana pour in their tributary waters from the north; on its south side this amazing river receives, commencing from the west after the conflux of the Lauricocha, the Yavari, the Jutay, the Juruay, the Tefe, Carori, Puros, and the great Madera, which has its sources in Potosi, far south of the Apurimac, and falls into the Maranon by numerous mouths; and the Topayos, Zingu, Dos Bocas, the Tocantins and the Mugu, issuing from the mining districts of Brasil, pay their tribute to the Maranon, until it rushes into the vast bosom of the Atlantic.
In breadth and depth the Maranon answers almost every where to its immense length, and it forms throughout its course, innumerable islands, especially between the mouths of the Napo and the Carori, which are picturesque in the extreme, from the great variety of their figures, and from the beautiful straits they form between their banks. The depth of the branches formed by these islands, near St. Pablo, or St. Paul de Omaguas, the western Portuguese fort, on the frontiers of New Granada and Peru, is more than a mile. At Coari, where the groups of isles terminate for a short space, the river is nearly a mile and a half broad, and M. de la Condamine, after taking every precaution against the effect of the current, found no bottom with 100 fathoms of line; 400 miles below the mouth of the Negro, the shores of the Maranon approach each other, and this place is called the Straight of Pauxis; the breadth here is only a mile, and the tides are perceptible, though the ocean is still 200 leagues distant.
Proceeding onward, with a majestic course, and forming numerous islands and straights, the river directs its course, after receiving the Zingu, towards the north-east, and enlarging its boundaries in the most astonishing manner, it runs, with accumulated force, to its final destination, forming, as it glides along, several very large insulated places; one of these dividing it at last into two mouths, by which it enters the Atlantic Ocean.
This island, called Joanes, is 150 leagues in length, and from its Cape Maguari to Cape Norte, on the opposite continent, the largest of the two estuaries is forty-five leagues in breadth, whilst the lesser is twelve leagues broad, from the same Cape Maguari to Tigioca point, on the southern continent.
The Maranon is subject to periodical floods during the rainy seasons, at which times it overflows, and fertilizes the country adjacent to its banks. The descent of this river in a straight course of 1860 miles, was found by M. de la Condamine, (who embarked on the Tunguragua and joined the Maranon) to be about 1020 feet, or rather more than six inches in a mile; and the place where the tides are first perceptible, is 90 feet above the level of the sea.
Its banks are adorned with every variety of plants peculiar to tropical countries; immense and stately forests are every where observed, inhabited only by the wild animals, or by man in a state of nature. The settlements of the Portuguese, extend only a very short distance from the Atlantic, where they have here and there a fort, in the most open situations of the interior; the rest of the valley of the Amazons is in the possession of its ancient tenants.
A history of the discovery of this river from the interior, has been already given; but Orellana was not the first who explored it. Vicente Yanez Pinzon, who accompanied Columbus in his first voyage, was the person by whom this was achieved. At his own expence, he fitted out four vessels in Spain, in 1499, and sailed to the Canaries; passing Cape Verde, he steered directly west, till on the 26th January 1500, when he saw the land, which he named Cabo de Consolacion (now called Cape St. Augustine); landing here, and viewing the country, he determined to coast along its shores, until he at last found himself in a fresh water sea, and advancing further, he discovered the islands at the mouth of the river, and trading with the Indians who inhabited its banks, he called it by what he heard them name it, the Maranon.
This discovery was followed by that of Orellana from the interior, in 1540. In 1559, Pedro de Orsua endeavoured to trace the route of Orellana, but was killed by the Indians.
In 1602, Rafael Ferrer explored the river for a short space, and gave the first account of the nations on its shores.
In 1616, some soldiers, pursuing the Indians, fell in with the False Maranon, and went down it in canoes; on their return, and in consequence of what they reported, Baca de Vega was appointed governor of Maynas, in 1618.