when, taking a bend to the N. E., in 11 degrees 18 minutes, the Perene incorporates itself with its mass of waters. This latter river, originating within two leagues of Tarma, divides that city, and receives various streams from the Cordillera of Bombon, and from Pasco.
From the confluence of the Perene to that of the Pachitea, forty capacious rivers empty themselves into the Apurimac. Of the two which are of particular note, the one that flows into it on the eastern side, in 10 degrees 45 minutes, is the Paucartambo;[1] and the other, which disembogues three leagues below, with such an impetuosity as to propel it against the mountains, and to cause it to change its direction to the N. W., is unquestionably the Beni.[2] After this junction it acquires
- ↑ Doubts hare been entertained whether this river, at the confluence of which the Comavos and Ruanaguas are settled, is in reality the Paucartambo. Our opinion on this head is affirmative, because, according to the relations of the Franciscan missionaries, more especially that of the travels in those regions, undertaken, in the year 1686, by friar Manuel Biedma; and conformably to the information given by the Indians, the river to which a reference has been made, originates on the heights of Cusco, and enters with a quantity of water greater by the one half than that which the Apurimac contains. Now, throughout the whole extent of the mountainous territory of Cusco, there is not any river beside the Paucartambo, that manifests such qualities. In his introduction to the missions [p. 41], the learned father Rodriguez Tena hazards an opinion, that the Paucartambo is the celebrated Amarumayu, by which the Ynca Yupanqui [Garcilaso, t. i. 1. 7, c. 13, 14, &c.] entered, in undertaking the conquest of the Moxos, which enterprise was afterwards meditated by Alvarez Maldonado; and that the Ynca could not have navigated to the Moxos by the Paucartambo, provided it disembogues in the Apurimac, and not in the Beni. To this we reply, that the Ynca navigated by the Paucartambo, until he reached the mountains of Chunchos, the population of which he, in the first instance, subjugated, and was afterwards enabled to pass to the Beni by some arm of communication, or, perhaps, by land; since this river, having its source in the Cordillera of Vilcanota, in the same parallel line as the Apurimac, and running, by the province of Paucartambo, to the west of that of Cusco, forms such an arc towards the east, that when it winds to the north, to enter the Apurimac, its position is so near to the site of the Beni, that at the confluences there is not a greater space than the one above pointed out.
- ↑ Among our geographers, some contend that the Beni forms, conjointly with the Itenes, the river of la Madera; while others are of opinion, that it descends to the Maranon, with the name of Yavari. We can trace the origin of these contrarieties. The most remote springs of the Beni he to the east of the province of Sicasica, in about 19 degrees of latitude. It runs from S. to N. with some inflections, receiving various rivers from the mountainous territory it intersects. Among the most noticeable of these is the Coroyco, which, issuing from the province of la Paz, enters it to the west. Pursuing its course, in
its origin, and forms the peninsula named Tallacaxa. Having resumed its eastern direction, it follows it to its mouth. Doctor Cosme Bueno is mistaken when he asserts, in the description of Jauxa, that this river, likewise named Pari, is the one which was anciently believed to be the origin of the Maranon. Herrara is guilty of a gross absurdity, in the passage of his Decades [t. iii. Decad. 5, 1. 4. c. 10], in which he considers it as the source of the river of la Plata.
