across the whole of the south of
the continent, passing from the Magdalena to the Ortequazza, from the
Ortequazza to the Caqueta, from the Caqueta to the Putumayo, from the
Putumayo to the Amazon! Four thousand miles of waterway, which only
require a few canals to make the network of navigation complete!"

"In short, the biggest and most admirable river system which we have in
the world."

The two young men were speaking in a kind of frenzy of their
incomparable river. They were themselves children of this great
Amazon, whose affluents, well worthy of itself, from the highways which
penetrate Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, New Grenada, Venezuela, and the four
Guianas--English, French, Dutch and Brazilian.

What nations, what races, has it seen whose origin is lost in the
far-distant past! It is one of the largest rivers of the globe. Its true
source still baffles our explorers. Numbers of States still claim
the honor of giving it birth. The Amazon was not likely to escape the
inevitable fate, and Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia have for years disputed
as to the honor of its glorious paternity.

To-day, however, there seems to be little doubt but that the Amazon
rises in Peru, in the district of Huaraco, in the department of Tarma,
and that it starts from the Lake of Lauricocha, which is situated
between the eleventh and twelfth degree of south latitude.

Those who make the river rise in Bolivia, and descend form the mountains
of Titicaca, have to prove that the true Amazon is the Ucayali, which is
formed by the junction of the Paro and the Apurimac--an assertion which
is now generally rejected.

At its departure from Lake Lauricocha the youthful river starts toward
the northeast for a distance of five hundred and sixty miles, and does
not strike to the west until it has received an important tributary--the
Panta. It is called the Maranon in its journey through Colombia and Peru
up to the Brazilian frontier--or, rather, the Maranhao, for Maranon is
only the French rendering of the Portuguese name.

From the frontier of Brazil to Manaos, where the superb Rio Negro joins
it, it takes the name of the Solimaes, or Solimoens, from the name of
the Indian tribe Solimao, of which survivors are still found in the
neighboring provinces. And, finally, from Manaos to the sea it is the
Amasenas, or river of the Amazons, a name given it by the old
Spaniards, the descendants of the adventurous Orellana, whose vague but
enthusiastic storie