Chapter
5
THE sss"THE LARGEST RIVER IN the whole world!" said Benito to Manoel Valdez, on the morrow.
They were sitting on the bank which formed the southern boundary of the fazenda, and looking at the liquid molecules passing slowly by, which, coming from the enormous range of the Andes, were on their road to lose themselves in the Atlantic Ocean eight hundred leagues away.
"And the river which carries to the sea the largest volume of water," replied Manoel.
"A volume so considerable," added Benito, "that it freshens the sea water for an immense distance from its mouth, and the force of whose current is felt by ships at eight leagues from the coast."
"A river whose course is developed over more than thirty degrees of latitude."
"And in a basin which from south to north does not com
