THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA

By Sir Walter Raleigh

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Sir Walter Raleigh may be taken as the great typical figure of the ageof Elizabeth. Courtier and statesman, soldier and sailor, scientistand man of letters, he engaged in almost all the main lines of publicactivity in his time, and was distinguished in them all. 

His father was a Devonshire gentleman of property, connected with manyof the distinguished families of the south of England. Walter was bornabout 1552 and was educated at Oxford. He first saw military servicein the Huguenot army in France in 1569, and in 1578 engaged, with hishalf-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in the first of his expeditionsagainst the Spaniards. After some service in Ireland, he attracted theattention of the Queen, and rapidly rose to the perilous position of herchief favorite. With her approval, he fitted out two expeditions for thecolonization of Virginia, neither of which did his royal mistress permithim to lead in person, and neither of which succeeded in establishing apermanent settlement. 

After about six years of high favor, Raleigh found his position atcourt endangered by the rivalry of Essex, and in 1592, on returningfrom convoying a squadron he had fitted out against the Spanish, he wasthrown into the Tower by the orders of the Queen, who had discovered anintrigue between him and one of her ladies whom he subsequently married. He was ultimately released, engaged in various naval exploits, and in1594 sailed for South America on the voyage described in the followingnarrative. 

On the death of Elizabeth, Raleigh's misfortunes increased. He wasaccused of treason against James I, condemned, reprieved, and imprisonedfor twelve years, during which he wrote his "History of the World, "and engaged in scientific researches. In 1616 he was liberated, to makeanother attempt to find the gold mine in Venezuela; but the expeditionwas disastrous, and, on his return, Raleigh was executed on the oldcharge in 1618. In his vices as in his virtues, Raleigh is a thoroughrepresentative of the great adventurers who laid the foundations of theBritish Empire. 

RALEIGH'S DISCOVERY OF GUIANA

The Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful EMPIRE Of GUIANA; with aRelation of the great and golden CITY of MANOA, which the Spaniardscall EL DORADO, and the PROVINCES of EMERIA, AROMAIA, AMAPAIA, and otherCountries, with their rivers, adjoining. Performed in the year 1595 bySir WALTER RALEIGH, KNIGHT, CAPTAIN of her Majesty's GUARD, Lord Wardenof the STANNARIES, and her Highness' LIEUTENANT-GENERAL of the COUNTY ofCORNWALL. 

To the Right Honourable my singular good Lord and kinsman CHARLESHOWARD, Knight of the Garter, Baron, and Councillor, and of the Admiralsof England the most renowned; and to the Right Honourable SIR ROBERTCECIL, KNIGHT, Councillor in her Highness' Privy Councils. 

For your Honours' many honourable and friendly parts, I have hithertoonly returned promises; and now, for answer of both your adventures, I have sent you a bundle of papers, which I have divided between yourLordship and Sir Robert Cecil, in these two respects chiefly; first, forthat it is reason that wasteful factors, when they have consumed suchstocks as they had in trust, do yield some colour for the same in theiraccount; secondly, for that I am assured that whatsoever shall be done, or written, by me, shall need a double protection and defence. The trialthat I had of both your loves, when I was left of all, but of malice andrevenge, makes me still presume that you will be pleased (knowingwhat little power I had to perform aught, and the great advantage offorewarned enemies) to answer that out of knowledge, which others shallbut object out of malice. In my more happy times as I did especiallyhonour you both, so I found that your loves sought me out in the darkestshadow of adversity, and the same affection which accompanied my betterfortune soared not away from me in my many miseries; all which though Icannot requite, yet I shall ever acknowledge; and the great debt which Ihave no power to pay, I can do no more for a time but confess to bedue. It is true that as my errors were great, so they have yielded verygrievous effects; and if aught might have been deserved in former times, to have counterpoised any part of offences, the fruit thereof, as itseemeth, was long before fallen from the tree, and the dead stock onlyremained. I did therefore, even in the winter of my life, undertakethese travails, fitter for bodies less blasted with misfortunes, for menof greater ability, and for minds of better encouragement, that thereby, if it were possible, I might recover but the moderation of excess, andthe least taste of the greatest plenty formerly possessed. If I hadknown other way to win, if I had imagined how greater adventures mighthave regained, if I could conceive what farther means I might yet usebut even to appease so powerful displeasure, I would not doubt but forone year more to hold fast my soul in my teeth till it were performed. Of that little remain I had, I have wasted in effect all herein. I haveundergone many constructions; I have been accompanied with manysorrows, with labour, hunger, heat, sickness, and peril; it appeareth, notwithstanding, that I made no other bravado of going to the sea, thanwas meant, and that I was never hidden in Cornwall, or elsewhere, aswas supposed. They have grossly belied me that forejudged that I wouldrather become a servant to the Spanish king than return; and the restwere much mistaken, who would have persuaded that I was too easeful andsensual to undertake a journey of so great travail. But if what I havedone receive the gracious construction of a painful pilgrimage, andpurchase the least remission, I shall think all too little, and thatthere were wanting to the rest many miseries. But if both the timespast, the present, and what may be in the future, do all by one grain ofgall continue in eternal distaste, I do not then know whether I shouldbewail myself, either for my too much travail and expense, or condemnmyself for doing less than that which can deserve nothing. From myselfI have deserved no thanks, for I am returned a beggar, and withered;but that I might have bettered my poor estate, it shall appear from thefollowing discourse, if I had not only respected her Majesty's futurehonour and riches. 

It became not the former fortune, in which I once lived, to go journeysof picory (marauding); it had sorted ill with the offices of honour, which by her Majesty's grace I hold this day in England, to run fromcape to cape and from place to place, for the pillage of ordinaryprizes. Many years since I had knowledge, by relation, of that mighty, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana, and of that great and golden city, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, and the naturals Manoa, whichcity was conquered, re-edified, and enlarged by a younger son ofGuayna-capac, Emperor of Peru, at such time as Francisco Pizarro andothers conquered the said empire from his two elder brethren, Guascarand Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being favouredby the orejones of Cuzco, the other by the people of Caxamalca. I sentmy servant Jacob Whiddon, the year before, to get knowledge of thepassages, and I had some light from Captain Parker, sometime my servant, and now attending on your Lordship, that such a place there was to thesouthward of the great bay of Charuas, or Guanipa: but I found that itwas 600 miles farther off than they supposed, and many impediments tothem unknown and unheard. After I had displanted Don Antonio de Berreo, who was upon the same enterprise, leaving my ships at Trinidad, at theport called Curiapan, I wandered 400 miles into the said country by landand river; the particulars I will leave to the following discourse. 

The country hath more quantity of gold, by manifold, than the best partsof the Indies, or Peru. All the most of the kings of the borders arealready become her Majesty's vassals, and seem to desire nothing morethan her Majesty's protection and the return of the English nation. Ithath another ground and assurance of riches and glory than the voyagesof the West Indies; an easier way to invade the best parts thereof thanby the common course. The king of Spain is not so impoverished by takingthree or four port towns in America as we suppose; neither are theriches of Peru or Nueva Espana so left by the sea side as it can beeasily washed away with a great flood, or spring tide, or left dry uponthe sands on a low ebb. The port towns are few and poor in respect ofthe rest within the land, and are of little defence, and are only richwhen the fleets are to receive the treasure for Spain; and we mightthink the Spaniards very simple, having so many horses and slaves, ifthey could not upon two days' warning carry all the gold they have intothe land, and far enough from the reach of our footmen, especially theIndies being, as they are for the most part, so mountainous, fullof woods, rivers, and marishes. In the port towns of the province ofVenezuela, as Cumana, Coro, and St. Iago (whereof Coro and St. Iago weretaken by Captain Preston, and Cumana and St. Josepho by us) we foundnot the value of one real of plate in either. But the cities ofBarquasimeta, Valencia, St. Sebastian, Cororo, St. Lucia, Laguna, Maracaiba, and Truxillo, are not so easily invaded. Neither doth theburning of those on the coast impoverish the king of Spain any oneducat; and if we sack the River of Hacha, St. Martha, and Carthagena, which are the ports of Nuevo Reyno and Popayan, there are besides withinthe land, which are indeed rich and prosperous, the towns and cities ofMerida, Lagrita, St. Christophoro, the great cities of Pamplona, SantaFe de Bogota, Tunxa, and Mozo, where the emeralds are found, thetowns and cities of Marequita, Velez, la Villa de Leiva, Palma, Honda, Angostura, the great city of Timana, Tocaima, St. Aguila, Pasto, [St. ]Iago, the great city of Popayan itself, Los Remedios, and the rest. Ifwe take the ports and villages within the bay of Uraba in the kingdomor rivers of Darien and Caribana, the cities and towns of St. Juan deRodas, of Cassaris, of Antiochia, Caramanta, Cali, and Anserma have goldenough to pay the king's part, and are not easily invaded by way ofthe ocean. Or if Nombre de Dios and Panama be taken, in the province ofCastilla del Oro, and the villages upon the rivers of Cenu and Chagre;Peru hath, besides those, and besides the magnificent cities of Quitoand Lima, so many islands, ports, cities, and mines as if I should namethem with the rest it would seem incredible to the reader. Of all which, because I have written a particular treatise of the West Indies, I willomit the repetition at this time, seeing that in the said treatise Ihave anatomized the rest of the sea towns as well of Nicaragua, Yucatan, Nueva Espana, and the islands, as those of the inland, and by what meansthey may be best invaded, as far as any mean judgment may comprehend. 

But I hope it shall appear that there is a way found to answer everyman's longing; a better Indies for her Majesty than the king of Spainhath any; which if it shall please her Highness to undertake, I shallmost willingly end the rest of my days in following the same. If it beleft to the spoil and sackage of common persons, if the love and serviceof so many nations be despised, so great riches and so mighty an empirerefused; I hope her Majesty will yet take my humble desire and my labourtherein in gracious part, which, if it had not been in respect ofher Highness' future honour and riches, could have laid hands on andransomed many of the kings and caciqui of the country, and have had areasonable proportion of gold for their redemption. But I have chosenrather to bear the burden of poverty than reproach; and rather to endurea second travail, and the chances thereof, than to have defaced anenterprise of so great assurance, until I knew whether it pleased Godto put a disposition in her princely and royal heart either to followor forslow (neglect, decline, lose through sloth) the same. I willtherefore leave it to His ordinance that hath only power in all things;and do humbly pray that your honours will excuse such errors as, withoutthe defence of art, overrun in every part the following discourse, inwhich I have neither studied phrase, form, nor fashion; that you will bepleased to esteem me as your own, though over dearly bought, and I shallever remain ready to do you all honour and service. 

TO THE READER

Because there have been divers opinions conceived of the gold orebrought from Guiana, and for that an alderman of London and an officerof her Majesty's mint hath given out that the same is of no price, Ihave thought good by the addition of these lines to give answer as wellto the said malicious slander as to other objections. It is true thatwhile we abode at the island of Trinidad I was informed by an Indianthat not far from the port where we anchored there were found certainmineral stones which they esteemed to be gold, and were thereuntopersuaded the rather for that they had seen both English and Frenchmengather and embark some quantities thereof. Upon this likelihood I sentforty men, and gave order that each one should bring a stone of thatmine, to make trial of the goodness; which being performed, I assuredthem at their return that the same was marcasite, and of no riches orvalue. Notwithstanding, divers, trusting more to their own sense than tomy opinion, kept of the said marcasite, and have tried thereof since myreturn, in divers places. In Guiana itself I never saw marcasite; butall the rocks, mountains, all stones in the plains, woods, and by therivers' sides, are in effect thorough-shining, and appear marvellousrich; which, being tried to be no marcasite, are the true signs of richminerals, but are no other than El madre del oro, as the Spaniards termthem, which is the mother of gold, or, as it is said by others, the scumof gold. Of divers sorts of these many of my company brought alsointo England, every one taking the fairest for the best, which is notgeneral. For mine own part, I did not countermand any man's desire oropinion, and I could have afforded them little if I should have deniedthem the pleasing of their own fancies therein; but I was resolved thatgold must be found either in grains, separate from the stone, as it isin most of the rivers in Guiana, or else in a kind of hard stone, whichwe call the white spar, of which I saw divers hills, and in sundryplaces, but had neither time nor men, nor instruments fit for labour. Near unto one of the rivers I found of the said white spar or flint avery great ledge or bank, which I endeavoured to break by all the meansI could, because there appeared on the outside some small grains ofgold; but finding no mean to work the same upon the upper part, seekingthe sides and circuit of the said rock, I found a clift in the same, from whence with daggers, and with the head of an axe, we got out somesmall quantity thereof; of which kind of white stone, wherein goldis engendered, we saw divers hills and rocks in every part of Guianawherein we travelled. Of this there have been made many trials; and inLondon it was first assayed by Master Westwood, a refiner dwelling inWood Street, and it held after the rate of twelve or thirteen thousandpounds a ton. Another sort was afterward tried by Master Bulmar, andMaster Dimock, assay-master; and it held after the rate of three andtwenty thousand pounds a ton. There was some of it again tried by MasterPalmer, Comptroller of the Mint, and Master Dimock in Goldsmith's Hall, and it held after six and twenty thousand and nine hundred pounds a ton. There was also at the same time, and by the same persons, a trial madeof the dust of the said mine; which held eight pounds and six ouncesweight of gold in the hundred. There was likewise at the same time atrial of an image of copper made in Guiana, which held a third partof gold, besides divers trials made in the country, and by others inLondon. But because there came ill with the good, and belike the saidalderman was not presented with the best, it hath pleased him thereforeto scandal all the rest, and to deface the enterprise as much as in himlieth. It hath also been concluded by divers that if there had been anysuch ore in Guiana, and the same discovered, that I would have broughthome a greater quantity thereof. First, I was not bound to satisfy anyman of the quantity, but only such as adventured, if any store had beenreturned thereof; but it is very true that had all their mountains beenof massy gold it was impossible for us to have made any longer stay tohave wrought the same; and whosoever hath seen with what strength ofstone the best gold ore is environed, he will not think it easy tobe had out in heaps, and especially by us, who had neither men, instruments, nor time, as it is said before, to perform the same. 

There were on this discovery no less than an hundred persons, who canall witness that when we passed any branch of the river to view the landwithin, and stayed from our boats but six hours, we were driven towade to the eyes at our return; and if we attempted the same the dayfollowing, it was impossible either to ford it, or to swim it, both byreason of the swiftness, and also for that the borders were so pesteredwith fast woods, as neither boat nor man could find place either to landor to embark; for in June, July, August, and September it is impossibleto navigate any of those rivers; for such is the fury of the current, and there are so many trees and woods overflown, as if any boat buttouch upon any tree or stake it is impossible to save any one persontherein. And ere we departed the land it ran with such swiftness as wedrave down, most commonly against the wind, little less than an hundredmiles a day. Besides, our vessels were no other than wherries, onelittle barge, a small cock-boat, and a bad galiota which we framed inhaste for that purpose at Trinidad; and those little boats had nine orten men apiece, with all their victuals and arms. It is further truethat we were about four hundred miles from our ships, and had been amonth from them, which also we left weakly manned in an open road, andhad promised our return in fifteen days. 

Others have devised that the same ore was had from Barbary, and that wecarried it with us into Guiana. Surely the singularity of that device Ido not well comprehend. For mine own part, I am not so much in love withthese long voyages as to devise thereby to cozen myself, to lie hard, tofare worse, to be subjected to perils, to diseases, to ill savours, tobe parched and withered, and withal to sustain the care and labour ofsuch an enterprise, except the same had more comfort than the fetchingof marcasite in Guiana, or buying of gold ore in Barbary. But I hope thebetter sort will judge me by themselves, and that the way of deceit isnot the way of honour or good opinion. I have herein consumed much time, and many crowns; and I had no other respect or desire than to serve herMajesty and my country thereby. If the Spanish nation had been of likebelief to these detractors we should little have feared or doubted theirattempts, wherewith we now are daily threatened. But if we now considerof the actions both of Charles the Fifth, who had the maidenhead of Peruand the abundant treasures of Atabalipa, together with the affairs ofthe Spanish king now living, what territories he hath purchased, whathe hath added to the acts of his predecessors, how many kingdoms he hathendangered, how many armies, garrisons, and navies he hath, and dothmaintain, the great losses which he hath repaired, as in Eighty-eightabove an hundred sail of great ships with their artillery, and that noyear is less infortunate, but that many vessels, treasures, and peopleare devoured, and yet notwithstanding he beginneth again like a stormto threaten shipwrack to us all; we shall find that these abilities risenot from the trades of sacks and Seville oranges, nor from aught elsethat either Spain, Portugal, or any of his other provinces produce; itis his Indian gold that endangereth and disturbeth all the nations ofEurope; it purchaseth intelligence, creepeth into counsels, and settethbound loyalty at liberty in the greatest monarchies of Europe. Ifthe Spanish king can keep us from foreign enterprises, and from theimpeachment of his trades, either by offer of invasion, or by besiegingus in Britain, Ireland, or elsewhere, he hath then brought the work ofour peril in great forwardness. 

Those princes that abound in treasure have great advantages over therest, if they once constrain them to a defensive war, where they aredriven once a year or oftener to cast lots for their own garments; andfrom all such shall all trades and intercourse be taken away, tothe general loss and impoverishment of the kingdom and commonweal soreduced. Besides, when our men are constrained to fight, it hath not thelike hope as when they are pressed and encouraged by the desire ofspoil and riches. Farther, it is to be doubted how those that in timeof victory seem to affect their neighbour nations will remain afterthe first view of misfortunes or ill success; to trust, also, to thedoubtfulness of a battle is but a fearful and uncertain adventure, seeing therein fortune is as likely to prevail as virtue. It shall notbe necessary to allege all that might be said, and therefore I will thusconclude; that whatsoever kingdom shall be enforced to defend itself maybe compared to a body dangerously diseased, which for a season may bepreserved with vulgar medicines, but in a short time, and by little andlittle, the same must needs fall to the ground and be dissolved. I havetherefore laboured all my life, both according to my small power andpersuasion, to advance all those attempts that might either promisereturn of profit to ourselves, or at least be a let and impeachment tothe quiet course and plentiful trades of the Spanish nation; who, in myweak judgement, by such a war were as easily endangered and brought fromhis powerfulness as any prince in Europe, if it be considered from howmany kingdoms and nations his revenues are gathered, and those so weakin their own beings and so far severed from mutual succour. But becausesuch a preparation and resolution is not to be hoped for in haste, and that the time which our enemies embrace cannot be had again toadvantage, I will hope that these provinces, and that empire now by mediscovered, shall suffice to enable her Majesty and the whole kingdomwith no less quantities of treasure than the king of Spain hath in allthe Indies, East and West, which he possesseth; which if the same beconsidered and followed, ere the Spaniards enforce the same, and if herMajesty will undertake it, I will be contented to lose her Highness'favour and good opinion for ever, and my life withal, if the same benot found rather to exceed than to equal whatsoever is in this discoursepromised and declared. I will now refer the reader to the followingdiscourse, with the hope that the perilous and chargeable labours andendeavours of such as thereby seek the profit and honour of her Majesty, and the English nation, shall by men of quality and virtue receive suchconstruction and good acceptance as themselves would like to be rewardedwithal in the like. 

THE DISCOVERY[*] OF GUIANA[+]

 [*] Exploration

 [+] The name is derived from the Guayano Indians, on the Orinoco. 

On Thursday, the sixth of February, in the year 1595, we departedEngland, and the Sunday following had sight of the north cape of Spain, the wind for the most part continuing prosperous; we passed in sight ofthe Burlings, and the Rock, and so onwards for the Canaries, and fellwith Fuerteventura the 17. Of the same month, where we spent two orthree days, and relieved our companies with some fresh meat. From thencewe coasted by the Grand Canaria, and so to Teneriffe, and stayed therefor the Lion's Whelp, your Lordship's ship, and for Captain AmyasPreston and the rest. But when after seven or eight days we found themnot, we departed and directed our course for Trinidad, with mine ownship, and a small barque of Captain Cross's only; for we had before lostsight of a small galego on the coast of Spain, which came with us fromPlymouth. We arrived at Trinidad the 22. Of March, casting anchorat Point Curiapan, which the Spaniards call Punta de Gallo, which issituate in eight degrees or thereabouts. We abode there four or fivedays, and in all that time we came not to the speech of any Indian orSpaniard. On the coast we saw a fire, as we sailed from the Point Caraotowards Curiapan, but for fear of the Spaniards none durst come to speakwith us. I myself coasted it in my barge close aboard the shore andlanded in every cove, the better to know the island, while the shipskept the channel. From Curiapan after a few days we turned up north-eastto recover that place which the Spaniards call Puerto de los Espanoles(now Port of Spain), and the inhabitants Conquerabia; and as before, revictualling my barge, I left the ships and kept by the shore, thebetter to come to speech with some of the inhabitants, and also tounderstand the rivers, watering-places, and ports of the island, which, as it is rudely done, my purpose is to send your Lordship after a fewdays. From Curiapan I came to a port and seat of Indians called Parico, where we found a fresh water river, but saw no people. From thenceI rowed to another port, called by the naturals Piche, and by theSpaniards Tierra de Brea. In the way between both were divers littlebrooks of fresh water, and one salt river that had store of oysters uponthe branches of the trees, and were very salt and well tasted. All theiroysters grow upon those boughs and sprays, and not on the ground; thelike is commonly seen in other places of the West Indies, and elsewhere. This tree is described by Andrew Thevet, in his France Antarctique, andthe form figured in the book as a plant very strange; and by Pliny inhis twelfth book of his Natural History. But in this island, as also inGuiana, there are very many of them. 

At this point, called Tierra de Brea or Piche, there is that abundanceof stone pitch that all the ships of the world may be therewith ladenfrom thence; and we made trial of it in trimming our ships to be mostexcellent good, and melteth not with the sun as the pitch of Norway, andtherefore for ships trading the south parts very profitable. From thencewe went to the mountain foot called Annaperima, and so passing the riverCarone, on which the Spanish city was seated, we met with our ships atPuerto de los Espanoles or Conquerabia. 

This island of Trinidad hath the form of a sheephook, and is but narrow;the north part is very mountainous; the soil is very excellent, and willbear sugar, ginger, or any other commodity that the Indies yield. Ithath store of deer, wild porks, fruit, fish, and fowl; it hath also forbread sufficient maize, cassavi, and of those roots and fruits which arecommon everywhere in the West Indies. It hath divers beasts which theIndies have not; the Spaniards confessed that they found grains of goldin some of the rivers; but they having a purpose to enter Guiana, themagazine of all rich metals, cared not to spend time in the searchthereof any further. This island is called by the people thereof Cairi, and in it are divers nations. Those about Parico are called Jajo, thoseat Punta de Carao are of the Arwacas (Arawaks) and between Carao andCuriapan they are called Salvajos. Between Carao and Punta de Galeraare the Nepojos, and those about the Spanish city term themselvesCarinepagotes (Carib-people). Of the rest of the nations, and ofother ports and rivers, I leave to speak here, being impertinent to mypurpose, and mean to describe them as they are situate in the particularplot and description of the island, three parts whereof I coasted withmy barge, that I might the better describe it. 

Meeting with the ships at Puerto de los Espanoles, we found at thelanding-place a company of Spaniards who kept a guard at the descent;and they offering a sign of peace, I sent Captain Whiddon to speak withthem, whom afterwards to my great grief I left buried in the said islandafter my return from Guiana, being a man most honest and valiant. TheSpaniards seemed to be desirous to trade with us, and to enter intoterms of peace, more for doubt of their own strength than for aughtelse; and in the end, upon pledge, some of them came aboard. The sameevening there stale also aboard us in a small canoa two Indians, the oneof them being a cacique or lord of the people, called Cantyman, who hadthe year before been with Captain Whiddon, and was of his acquaintance. By this Cantyman we understood what strength the Spaniards had, how farit was to their city, and of Don Antonio de Berreo, the governor, whowas said to be slain in his second attempt of Guiana, but was not. 

While we remained at Puerto de los Espanoles some Spaniards came aboardus to buy linen of the company, and such other things as they wanted, and also to view our ships and company, all which I entertained kindlyand feasted after our manner. By means whereof I learned of one andanother as much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as they knew; forthose poor soldiers having been many years without wine, a few draughtsmade them merry, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana and the richesthereof, and all what they knew of the ways and passages; myself seemingto purpose nothing less than the entrance or discovery thereof, but bredin them an opinion that I was bound only for the relief of those Englishwhich I had planted in Virginia, whereof the bruit was come among them;which I had performed in my return, if extremity of weather had notforced me from the said coast. 

I found occasions of staying in this place for two causes. The one wasto be revenged of Berreo, who the year before, 1594, had betrayed eightof Captain Whiddon's men, and took them while he departed from them toseek the Edward Bonaventure, which arrived at Trinidad the day beforefrom the East Indies: in whose absence Berreo sent a canoa aboard thepinnace only with Indians and dogs inviting the company to go with theminto the woods to kill a deer. Who like wise men, in the absence oftheir captain followed the Indians, but were no sooner one arquebusshot from the shore, but Berreo's soldiers lying in ambush had them all, notwithstanding that he had given his word to Captain Whiddon that theyshould take water and wood safely. The other cause of my stay was, forthat by discourse with the Spaniards I daily learned more and more ofGuiana, of the rivers and passages, and of the enterprise of Berreo, bywhat means or fault he failed, and how he meant to prosecute the same. 

While we thus spent the time I was assured by another cacique of thenorth side of the island, that Berreo had sent to Margarita and Cumanafor soldiers, meaning to have given me a cassado (blow) at parting, ifit had been possible. For although he had given order through all theisland that no Indian should come aboard to trade with me upon pain ofhanging and quartering (having executed two of them for the same, which I afterwards found), yet every night there came some with mostlamentable complaints of his cruelty: how he had divided the island andgiven to every soldier a part; that he made the ancient caciques, whichwere lords of the country, to be their slaves; that he kept them inchains, and dropped their naked bodies with burning bacon, and suchother torments, which I found afterwards to be true. For in the city, after I entered the same, there were five of the lords or little kings, which they call caciques in the West Indies, in one chain, almost deadof famine, and wasted with torments. These are called in their ownlanguage acarewana, and now of late since English, French, and Spanish, are come among them, they call themselves captains, because theyperceive that the chiefest of every ship is called by that name. Those five captains in the chain were called Wannawanare, Carroaori, Maquarima, Tarroopanama, and Aterima. So as both to be revenged of theformer wrong, as also considering that to enter Guiana by small boats, to depart 400 or 500 miles from my ships, and to leave a garrison in myback interested in the same enterprise, who also daily expected suppliesout of Spain, I should have savoured very much of the ass; and thereforetaking a time of most advantage, I set upon the Corps du garde inthe evening, and having put them to the sword, sent Captain Caulfieldonwards with sixty soldiers, and myself followed with forty more, and sotook their new city, which they called St. Joseph, by break of day. Theyabode not any fight after a few shot, and all being dismissed, butonly Berreo and his companion (the Portuguese captain Alvaro Jorge), Ibrought them with me aboard, and at the instance of the Indians I settheir new city of St. Joseph on fire. The same day arrived CaptainGeorge Gifford with your lordship's ship, and Captain Keymis, whomI lost on the coast of Spain, with the galego, and in them diversgentlemen and others, which to our little army was a great comfort andsupply. 

We then hasted away towards our purposed discovery, and first I calledall the captains of the island together that were enemies to theSpaniards; for there were some which Berreo had brought out of othercountries, and planted there to eat out and waste those that werenatural of the place. And by my Indian interpreter, which I carried outof England, I made them understand that I was the servant of a queen whowas the great cacique of the north, and a virgin, and had more caciquiunder her than there were trees in that island; that she was an enemy tothe Castellani in respect of their tyranny and oppression, and that shedelivered all such nations about her, as were by them oppressed; andhaving freed all the coast of the northern world from their servitude, had sent me to free them also, and withal to defend the country ofGuiana from their invasion and conquest. I shewed them her Majesty'spicture, which they so admired and honoured, as it had been easy to havebrought them idolatrous thereof. The like and a more large discourseI made to the rest of the nations, both in my passing to Guiana and tothose of the borders, so as in that part of the world her Majestyis very famous and admirable; whom they now call EZRABETA CASSIPUNAAQUEREWANA, which is as much as 'Elizabeth, the Great Princess, orGreatest Commander. ' This done, we left Puerto de los Espanoles, andreturned to Curiapan, and having Berreo my prisoner, I gathered from himas much of Guiana as he knew. This Berreo is a gentleman well descended, and had long served the Spanish king in Milan, Naples, the LowCountries, and elsewhere, very valiant and liberal, and a gentleman ofgreat assuredness, and of a great heart. I used him according to hisestate and worth in all things I could, according to the small means Ihad. 

I sent Captain Whiddon the year before to get what knowledge he could ofGuiana: and the end of my journey at this time was to discover and enterthe same. But my intelligence was far from truth, for the country issituate about 600 English miles further from the sea than I was madebelieve it had been. Which afterwards understanding to be true byBerreo, I kept it from the knowledge of my company, who else would neverhave been brought to attempt the same. Of which 600 miles I passed 400, leaving my ships so far from me at anchor in the sea, which was more ofdesire to perform that discovery than of reason, especially having suchpoor and weak vessels to transport ourselves in. For in the bottom ofan old galego which I caused to be fashioned like a galley, and in onebarge, two wherries, and a ship-boat of the Lion's Whelp, we carried 100persons and their victuals for a month in the same, being all drivento lie in the rain and weather in the open air, in the burning sun, andupon the hard boards, and to dress our meat, and to carry all manner offurniture in them. Wherewith they were so pestered and unsavoury, thatwhat with victuals being most fish, with the wet clothes of so many menthrust together, and the heat of the sun, I will undertake there wasnever any prison in England that could be found more unsavoury andloathsome, especially to myself, who had for many years before beendieted and cared for in a sort far more differing. 

If Captain Preston had not been persuaded that he should have come toolate to Trinidad to have found us there (for the month was expired whichI promised to tarry for him there ere he could recover the coast ofSpain) but that it had pleased God he might have joined with us, andthat we had entered the country but some ten days sooner ere the riverswere overflown, we had adventured either to have gone to the great cityof Manoa, or at least taken so many of the other cities and towns nearerat hand, as would have made a royal return. But it pleased not God somuch to favour me at this time. If it shall be my lot to prosecute thesame, I shall willingly spend my life therein. And if any else shallbe enabled thereunto, and conquer the same, I assure him thus much; heshall perform more than ever was done in Mexico by Cortes, or in Peru byPizarro, whereof the one conquered the empire of Mutezuma, the otherof Guascar and Atabalipa. And whatsoever prince shall possess it, thatprince shall be lord of more gold, and of a more beautiful empire, andof more cities and people, than either the king of Spain or the GreatTurk. 

But because there may arise many doubts, and how this empire of Guianais become so populous, and adorned with so many great cities, towns, temples, and treasures, I thought good to make it known, that theemperor now reigning is descended from those magnificent princesof Peru, of whose large territories, of whose policies, conquests, edifices, and riches, Pedro de Cieza, Francisco Lopez, and others havewritten large discourses. For when Francisco Pizarro, Diego Almagroand others conquered the said empire of Peru, and had put to deathAtabalipa, son to Guayna Capac, which Atabalipa had formerly caused hiseldest brother Guascar to be slain, one of the younger sons of GuaynaCapac fled out of Peru, and took with him many thousands of thosesoldiers of the empire called orejones ("having large ears, " the namegiven by the Spaniards to the Peruvian warriors, who wore ear-pendants), and with those and many others which followed him, he vanquished allthat tract and valley of America which is situate between the greatriver of Amazons and Baraquan, otherwise called Orenoque and Maranon(Baraquan is the alternative name to Orenoque, Maranon to Amazons). 

The empire of Guiana is directly east from Peru towards the sea, andlieth under the equinoctial line; and it hath more abundance of goldthan any part of Peru, and as many or more great cities than ever Peruhad when it flourished most. It is governed by the same laws, and theemperor and people observe the same religion, and the same form andpolicies in government as were used in Peru, not differing in any part. And I have been assured by such of the Spaniards as have seen Manoa, theimperial city of Guiana, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, thatfor the greatness, for the riches, and for the excellent seat, it farexceedeth any of the world, at least of so much of the world as is knownto the Spanish nation. It is founded upon a lake of salt water of 200leagues long, like unto Mare Caspium. And if we compare it to that ofPeru, and but read the report of Francisco Lopez and others, it willseem more than credible; and because we may judge of the one by theother, I thought good to insert part of the 120. Chapter of Lopez inhis General History of the Indies, wherein he describeth the court andmagnificence of Guayna Capac, ancestor to the emperor of Guiana, whosevery words are these:--

"Todo el servicio de su casa, mesa, y cocina era de oro y de plata, y cuando menos de plata y cobre, por mas recio. Tenia en su recamaraestatuas huecas de oro, que parescian gigantes, y las figuras al propioy tamano de cuantos animales, aves, arboles, y yerbas produce la tierra, y de cuantos peces cria la mar y agua de sus reynos. Tenia asimesmosogas, costales, cestas, y troxes de oro y plata; rimeros de palos deoro, que pareciesen lena rajada para quemar. En fin no habia cosa en sutierra, que no la tuviese de oro contrahecha; y aun dizen, que tenianlos Ingas un verjel en una isla cerca de la Puna, donde se iban aholgar, cuando querian mar, que tenia la hortaliza, las flores, yarboles de oro y plata; invencion y grandeza hasta entonces nunca vista. Allende de todo esto, tenia infinitisima cantidad de plata y oro porlabrar en el Cuzco, que se perdio por la muerte de Guascar; ca losIndios lo escondieron, viendo que los Espanoles se lo tomaban, yenviaban a Espana. "

That is, "All the vessels of his house, table, and kitchen, were ofgold and silver, and the meanest of silver and copper for strength andhardness of metal. He had in his wardrobe hollow statues of gold whichseemed giants, and the figures in proportion and bigness of all thebeasts, birds, trees, and herbs, that the earth bringeth forth; and ofall the fishes that the sea or waters of his kingdom breedeth. He hadalso ropes, budgets, chests, and troughs of gold and silver, heaps ofbillets of gold, that seemed wood marked out (split into logs) toburn. Finally, there was nothing in his country whereof he had notthe counterfeit in gold. Yea, and they say, the Ingas had a garden ofpleasure in an island near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves, when they would take the air of the sea, which had all kinds ofgarden-herbs, flowers, and trees of gold and silver; an invention andmagnificence till then never seen. Besides all this, he had an infinitequantity of silver and gold unwrought in Cuzco, which was lost by thedeath of Guascar, for the Indians hid it, seeing that the Spaniards tookit, and sent it into Spain. "

And in the 117. Chapter; Francisco Pizarro caused the gold and silver ofAtabalipa to be weighed after he had taken it, which Lopez setteth downin these words following:--"Hallaron cincuenta y dos mil marcos de buenaplata, y un millon y trecientos y veinte y seis mil y quinientospesos de oro. " Which is, "They found 52, 000 marks of good silver, and1, 326, 500 pesos of gold. " Now, although these reports may seem strange, yet if we consider the many millions which are daily brought out ofPeru into Spain, we may easily believe the same. For we find that by theabundant treasure of that country the Spanish king vexes all the princesof Europe, and is become, in a few years, from a poor king of Castile, the greatest monarch of this part of the world, and likely every day toincrease if other princes forslow the good occasions offered, and sufferhim to add this empire to the rest, which by far exceedeth all the rest. If his gold now endanger us, he will then be unresistible. Such of theSpaniards as afterwards endeavoured the conquest thereof, whereof therehave been many, as shall be declared hereafter, thought that this Inga, of whom this emperor now living is descended, took his way by the riverof Amazons, by that branch which is called Papamene (The Papamene is atributary not of the Amazon river but of the Meta, one of the principaltributaries of the Orinoco). For by that way followed Orellana, by thecommandment of Gonzalo Pizarro, in the year 1542, whose name the riveralso beareth this day. Which is also by others called Maranon, althoughAndrew Thevet doth affirm that between Maranon and Amazons there are 120leagues; but sure it is that those rivers have one head and beginning, and the Maranon, which Thevet describeth, is but a branch of Amazons orOrellana, of which I will speak more in another place. It was attemptedby Ordas; but it is now little less than 70 years since that DiegoOrdas, a Knight of the Order of Santiago, attempted the same; and it wasin the year 1542 that Orellana discovered the river of Amazons; but thefirst that ever saw Manoa was Juan Martinez, master of the munitionto Ordas. At a port called Morequito (probably San Miguel), in Guiana, there lieth at this day a great anchor of Ordas his ship. And this portis some 300 miles within the land, upon the great river of Orenoque. I rested at this port four days, twenty days after I left the ships atCuriapan. 

The relation of this Martinez, who was the first that discovered Manoa, his success, and end, is to be seen in the Chancery of St. Juan dePuerto Rico, whereof Berreo had a copy, which appeared to be thegreatest encouragement as well to Berreo as to others that formerlyattempted the discovery and conquest. Orellana, after he failed of thediscovery of Guiana by the said river of Amazons, passed into Spain, andthere obtained a patent of the king for the invasion and conquest, butdied by sea about the islands; and his fleet being severed by tempest, the action for that time proceeded not. Diego Ordas followed theenterprise, and departed Spain with 600 soldiers and thirty horse. Who, arriving on the coast of Guiana, was slain in a mutiny, with the mostpart of such as favoured him, as also of the rebellious part, insomuchas his ships perished and few or none returned; neither was it certainlyknown what became of the said Ordas until Berreo found the anchor of hisship in the river of Orenoque; but it was supposed, and so it is writtenby Lopez, that he perished on the seas, and of other writers diverselyconceived and reported. And hereof it came that Martinez entered so farwithin the land, and arrived at that city of Inga the emperor; for itchanced that while Ordas with his army rested at the port of Morequito(who was either the first or second that attempted Guiana), by somenegligence the whole store of powder provided for the service was seton fire, and Martinez, having the chief charge, was condemned by theGeneral Ordas to be executed forthwith. Martinez, being much favoured bythe soldiers, had all the means possible procured for his life; but itcould not be obtained in other sort than this, that he should be setinto a canoa alone, without any victual, only with his arms, and soturned loose into the great river. But it pleased God that the canoa wascarried down the stream, and certain of the Guianians met it the sameevening; and, having not at any time seen any Christian nor any man ofthat colour, they carried Martinez into the land to be wondered at, andso from town to town, until he came to the great city of Manoa, the seatand residence of Inga the emperor. The emperor, after he had beheld him, knew him to be a Christian, for it was not long before that his brethrenGuascar and Atabalipa were vanquished by the Spaniards in Peru: andcaused him to be lodged in his palace, and well entertained. He livedseven months in Manoa, but was not suffered to wander into the countryanywhere. He was also brought thither all the way blindfold, led by theIndians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa itself, and was fourteenor fifteen days in the passage. He avowed at his death that he enteredthe city at noon, and then they uncovered his face; and that hetravelled all that day till night through the city, and the next dayfrom sun rising to sun setting, ere he came to the palace of Inga. Afterthat Martinez had lived seven months in Manoa, and began to understandthe language of the country, Inga asked him whether he desired to returninto his own country, or would willingly abide with him. But Martinez, not desirous to stay, obtained the favour of Inga to depart; with whomhe sent divers Guianians to conduct him to the river of Orenoque, allloaden with as much gold as they could carry, which he gave to Martinezat his departure. But when he was arrived near the river's side, theborderers which are called Orenoqueponi (poni is a Carib postpositionmeaning "on") robbed him and his Guianians of all the treasure (theborderers being at that time at wars, which Inga had not conquered) saveonly of two great bottles of gourds, which were filled with beads ofgold curiously wrought, which those Orenoqueponi thought had beenno other thing than his drink or meat, or grain for food, with whichMartinez had liberty to pass. And so in canoas he fell down from theriver of Orenoque to Trinidad, and from thence to Margarita, and so toSt. Juan del Puerto Rico; where, remaining a long time for passage intoSpain, he died. In the time of his extreme sickness, and when he waswithout hope of life, receiving the sacrament at the hands of hisconfessor, he delivered these things, with the relation of his travels, and also called for his calabazas or gourds of the gold beads, which hegave to the church and friars, to be prayed for. 

This Martinez was he that christened the city of Manoa by the name of ElDorado, and, as Berreo informed me, upon this occasion, those Guianians, and also the borderers, and all other in that tract which I have seen, are marvellous great drunkards; in which vice I think no nation cancompare with them; and at the times of their solemn feasts, when theemperor carouseth with his captains, tributaries, and governors, themanner is thus. All those that pledge him are first stripped naked andtheir bodies anointed all over with a kind of white balsamum (by themcalled curca), of which there is great plenty, and yet very dear amongstthem, and it is of all other the most precious, whereof we have had goodexperience. When they are anointed all over, certain servants of theemperor, having prepared gold made into fine powder, blow it throughhollow canes upon their naked bodies, until they be all shining fromthe foot to the head; and in this sort they sit drinking by twentiesand hundreds, and continue in drunkenness sometimes six or seven daystogether. The same is also confirmed by a letter written into Spainwhich was intercepted, which Master Robert Dudley told me he had seen. Upon this sight, and for the abundance of gold which he saw in the city, the images of gold in their temples, the plates, armours, and shields ofgold which they use in the wars, he called it El Dorado. 

After the death of Ordas and Martinez, and after Orellana, who wasemployed by Gonzalo Pizarro, one Pedro de Orsua, a knight of Navarre, attempted Guiana, taking his way into Peru, and built his brigandinesupon a river called Oia, which riseth to the southward of Quito, andis very great. This river falleth into Amazons, by which Orsua withhis companies descended, and came out of that province which is calledMotilones ("friars"--Indians so named from their cropped heads); andit seemeth to me that this empire is reserved for her Majesty and theEnglish nation, by reason of the hard success which all these and otherSpaniards found in attempting the same, whereof I will speak briefly, though impertinent in some sort to my purpose. This Pedro de Orsua hadamong his troops a Biscayan called Aguirre, a man meanly born, who bareno other office than a sergeant or alferez (al-faris, Arab. --horseman, mounted officer): but after certain months, when the soldiers weregrieved with travels and consumed with famine, and that no entrancecould be found by the branches or body of Amazons, this Aguirre raiseda mutiny, of which he made himself the head, and so prevailed as he putOrsua to the sword and all his followers, taking on him the whole chargeand commandment, with a purpose not only to make himself emperor ofGuiana, but also of Peru and of all that side of the West Indies. He hadof his party 700 soldiers, and of those many promised to draw in othercaptains and companies, to deliver up towns and forts in Peru; butneither finding by the said river any passage into Guiana, nor anypossibility to return towards Peru by the same Amazons, by reason thatthe descent of the river made so great a current, he was enforced todisemboque at the mouth of the said Amazons, which cannot be less than1, 000 leagues from the place where they embarked. From thence he coastedthe land till he arrived at Margarita to the north of Mompatar, which isat this day called Puerto de Tyranno, for that he there slew Don Juande Villa Andreda, Governor of Margarita, who was father to Don JuanSarmiento, Governor of Margarita when Sir John Burgh landed there andattempted the island. Aguirre put to the sword all other in the islandthat refused to be of his party, and took with him certain cimarrones(fugitive slaves) and other desperate companions. From thence he went toCumana and there slew the governor, and dealt in all as at Margarita. He spoiled all the coast of Caracas and the province of Venezuela and ofRio de la Hacha; and, as I remember, it was the same year that Sir JohnHawkins sailed to St. Juan de Ullua in the Jesus of Lubeck; for himselftold me that he met with such a one upon the coast, that rebelled, andhad sailed down all the river of Amazons. Aguirre from thence landedabout Santa Marta and sacked it also, putting to death so many asrefused to be his followers, purposing to invade Nuevo Reyno de Granadaand to sack Pamplona, Merida, Lagrita, Tunja, and the rest of the citiesof Nuevo Reyno, and from thence again to enter Peru; but in a fight inthe said Nuevo Reyno he was overthrown, and, finding no way to escape, he first put to the sword his own children, foretelling them that theyshould not live to be defamed or upbraided by the Spaniards after hisdeath, who would have termed them the children of a traitor or tyrant;and that, sithence he could not make them princes, he would yet deliverthem from shame and reproach. These were the ends and tragedies ofOrdas, Martinez, Orellana, Orsua, and Aguirre. Also soon after Ordasfollowed Jeronimo Ortal de Saragosa, with 130 soldiers; who failing hisentrance by sea, was cast with the current on the coast of Paria, andpeopled about S. Miguel de Neveri. It was then attempted by Don Pedrode Silva, a Portuguese of the family of Ruy Gomez de Silva, and by thefavour which Ruy Gomez had with the king he was set out. But he alsoshot wide of the mark; for being departed from Spain with his fleet, heentered by Maranon or Amazons, where by the nations of the river andby the Amazons, he was utterly overthrown, and himself and all his armydefeated; only seven escaped, and of those but two returned. 

After him came Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, and landed at Cumana, in theWest Indies, taking his journey by land towards Orenoque, which may besome 120 leagues; but ere he came to the borders of the said river, hewas set upon by a nation of the Indians, called Wikiri, and overthrownin such sort, that of 300 soldiers, horsemen, many Indians, and negroes, there returned but eighteen. Others affirm that he was defeated in thevery entrance of Guiana, at the first civil town of the empire calledMacureguarai. Captain Preston, in taking Santiago de Leon (which was byhim and his companies very resolutely performed, being a great town, andfar within the land) held a gentleman prisoner, who died in his ship, that was one of the company of Hernandez de Serpa, and saved among thosethat escaped; who witnessed what opinion is held among the Spaniardsthereabouts of the great riches of Guiana, and El Dorado, the city ofInga. Another Spaniard was brought aboard me by Captain Preston, whotold me in the hearing of himself and divers other gentlemen, that hemet with Berreo's campmaster at Caracas, when he came from the bordersof Guiana, and that he saw with him forty of most pure plates of gold, curiously wrought, and swords of Guiana decked and inlaid with gold, feathers garnished with gold, and divers rarities, which he carried tothe Spanish king. 

After Hernandez de Serpa, it was undertaken by the Adelantado, DonGonzalez Ximenes de Quesada, who was one of the chiefest in the conquestof Nuevo Reyno, whose daughter and heir Don Antonio de Berreo married. Gonzalez sought the passage also by the river called Papamene, whichriseth by Quito, in Peru, and runneth south-east 100 leagues, and thenfalleth into Amazons. But he also, failing the entrance, returned withthe loss of much labour and cost. I took one Captain George, a Spaniard, that followed Gonzalez in this enterprise. Gonzalez gave his daughter toBerreo, taking his oath and honour to follow the enterprise to the lastof his substance and life. Who since, as he hath sworn to me, hath spent300, 000 ducats in the same, and yet never could enter so far into theland as myself with that poor troop, or rather a handful of men, beingin all about 100 gentlemen, soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and ofall sorts; neither could any of the forepassed undertakers, nor Berreohimself, discover the country, till now lately by conference with anancient king, called Carapana (Caribana, Carib land, was an old Europeanname for the Atlantic coast near the mouth of the Orinoco, and hence wasapplied to one of its chiefs. Berrio called this district "Emeria"), he got the true light thereof. For Berreo came about 1, 500 miles ere heunderstood aught, or could find any passage or entrance into any partthereof; yet he had experience of all these fore-named, and diversothers, and was persuaded of their errors and mistakings. Berreo soughtit by the river Cassanar, which falleth into a great river called Pato:Pato falleth into Meta, and Meta into Baraquan, which is also calledOrenoque. He took his journey from Nuevo Reyno de Granada, where hedwelt, having the inheritance of Gonzalez Ximenes in those parts; he wasfollowed with 700 horse, he drove with him 1, 000 head of cattle, he hadalso many women, Indians, and slaves. How all these rivers cross andencounter, how the country lieth and is bordered, the passage of Ximenesand Berreo, mine own discovery, and the way that I entered, with all therest of the nations and rivers, your lordship shall receive in a largechart or map, which I have not yet finished, and which I shall mosthumbly pray your lordship to secrete, and not to suffer it to passyour own hands; for by a draught thereof all may be prevented by othernations; for I know it is this very year sought by the French, althoughby the way that they now take, I fear it not much. It was also told meere I departed England, that Villiers, the Admiral, was in preparationfor the planting of Amazons, to which river the French have made diversvoyages, and returned much gold and other rarities. I spake with acaptain of a French ship that came from thence, his ship riding inFalmouth the same year that my ships came first from Virginia; there wasanother this year in Helford, that also came from thence, and had beenfourteen months at an anchor in Amazons; which were both very rich. 

Although, as I am persuaded, Guiana cannot be entered that way, yet nodoubt the trade of gold from thence passeth by branches of rivers intothe river of Amazons, and so it doth on every hand far from the countryitself; for those Indians of Trinidad have plates of gold from Guiana, and those cannibals of Dominica which dwell in the islands by which ourships pass yearly to the West Indies, also the Indians of Paria, thoseIndians called Tucaris, Chochi, Apotomios, Cumanagotos, and all thoseother nations inhabiting near about the mountains that run from Pariathrough the province of Venezuela, and in Maracapana, and the cannibalsof Guanipa, the Indians called Assawai, Coaca, Ajai, and the rest (allwhich shall be described in my description as they are situate) haveplates of gold of Guiana. And upon the river of Amazons, Thevet writeththat the people wear croissants of gold, for of that form the Guianiansmost commonly make them; so as from Dominica to Amazons, which is above250 leagues, all the chief Indians in all parts wear of those plates ofGuiana. Undoubtedly those that trade Amazons return much gold, which(as is aforesaid) cometh by trade from Guiana, by some branch of a riverthat falleth from the country into Amazons, and either it is by theriver which passeth by the nations called Tisnados, or by Caripuna. 

I made enquiry amongst the most ancient and best travelled of theOrenoqueponi, and I had knowledge of all the rivers between Orenoque andAmazons, and was very desirous to understand the truth of those warlikewomen, because of some it is believed, of others not. And though Idigress from my purpose, yet I will set down that which hath beendelivered me for truth of those women, and I spake with a cacique, orlord of people, that told me he had been in the river, and beyond italso. The nations of these women are on the south side of the river inthe provinces of Topago, and their chiefest strengths and retractsare in the islands situate on the south side of the entrance, some 60leagues within the mouth of the said river. The memories of the likewomen are very ancient as well in Africa as in Asia. In Africa thosethat had Medusa for queen; others in Scythia, near the rivers of Tanaisand Thermodon. We find, also, that Lampedo and Marthesia were queens ofthe Amazons. In many histories they are verified to have been, and indivers ages and provinces; but they which are not far from Guiana doaccompany with men but once in a year, and for the time of one month, which I gather by their relation, to be in April; and that time allkings of the borders assemble, and queens of the Amazons; and after thequeens have chosen, the rest cast lots for their valentines. This onemonth they feast, dance, and drink of their wines in abundance; and themoon being done they all depart to their own provinces. They are saidto be very cruel and bloodthirsty, especially to such as offer to invadetheir territories. These Amazons have likewise great store of theseplates of gold, which they recover by exchange chiefly for a kind ofgreen stones, which the Spaniards call piedras hijadas, and we use forspleen-stones (stones reduced to powder and taken internally to curemaladies of the spleen); and for the disease of the stone we alsoesteem them. Of these I saw divers in Guiana; and commonly every kingor cacique hath one, which their wives for the most part wear, and theyesteem them as great jewels. 

But to return to the enterprise of Berreo, who, as I have said, departedfrom Nuevo Reyno with 700 horse, besides the provisions above rehearsed. He descended by the river called Cassanar, which riseth in Nuevo Reynoout of the mountains by the city of Tunja, from which mountain alsospringeth Pato; both which fall into the great river of Meta, and Metariseth from a mountain joining to Pamplona, in the same Nuevo Reyno deGranada. These, as also Guaiare, which issueth out of the mountains byTimana, fall all into Baraquan, and are but of his heads; for at theircoming together they lose their names, and Baraquan farther down is alsorebaptized by the name of Orenoque. On the other side of the city andhills of Timana riseth Rio Grande, which falleth into the sea by SantaMarta. By Cassanar first, and so into Meta, Berreo passed, keeping hishorsemen on the banks, where the country served them for to march; andwhere otherwise, he was driven to embark them in boats which he buildedfor the purpose, and so came with the current down the river of Meta, and so into Baraquan. After he entered that great and mighty river, hebegan daily to lose of his companies both men and horse; for it is inmany places violently swift, and hath forcible eddies, many sands, and divers islands sharp pointed with rocks. But after one whole year, journeying for the most part by river, and the rest by land, he grewdaily to fewer numbers; from both by sickness, and by encountering withthe people of those regions through which he travelled, his companieswere much wasted, especially by divers encounters with the Amapaians(Amapaia was Berrio's name for the Orinoco valley above the Caurariver). And in all this time he never could learn of any passage intoGuiana, nor any news or fame thereof, until he came to a further borderof the said Amapaia, eight days' journey from the river Caroli (theCaroni river, the first great affluent of the Orinoco on the south, about 180 miles from the sea), which was the furthest river that heentered. Among those of Amapaia, Guiana was famous; but few of thesepeople accosted Berreo, or would trade with him the first three monthsof the six which he sojourned there. This Amapaia is also marvellousrich in gold, as both Berreo confessed and those of Guiana with whom Ihad most conference; and is situate upon Orenoque also. In this countryBerreo lost sixty of his best soldiers, and most of all his horse thatremained in his former year's travel. But in the end, after diversencounters with those nations, they grew to peace, and they presentedBerreo with ten images of fine gold among divers other plates andcroissants, which, as he sware to me, and divers other gentlemen, wereso curiously wrought, as he had not seen the like either in Italy, Spain, or the Low Countries; and he was resolved that when they cameto the hands of the Spanish king, to whom he had sent them by hiscamp-master, they would appear very admirable, especially being wroughtby such a nation as had no iron instruments at all, nor any of thosehelps which our goldsmiths have to work withal. The particular name ofthe people in Amapaia which gave him these pieces, are called Anebas, and the river of Orenoque at that place is about twelve English milesbroad, which may be from his outfall into the sea 700 or 800 miles. 

This province of Amapaia is a very low and a marish ground near theriver; and by reason of the red water which issueth out in smallbranches through the fenny and boggy ground, there breed diverspoisonful worms and serpents. And the Spaniards not suspecting, nor inany sort foreknowing the danger, were infected with a grievous kind offlux by drinking thereof, and even the very horses poisoned therewith;insomuch as at the end of the six months that they abode there, of alltheir troops there were not left above 120 soldiers, and neither horsenor cattle. For Berreo hoped to have found Guiana be 1, 000 miles nearerthan it fell out to be in the end; by means whereof they sustained muchwant, and much hunger, oppressed with grievous diseases, and all themiseries that could be imagined. I demanded of those in Guiana that hadtravelled Amapaia, how they lived with that tawny or red water whenthey travelled thither; and they told me that after the sun was near themiddle of the sky, they used to fill their pots and pitchers with thatwater, but either before that time or towards the setting of the sunit was dangerous to drink of, and in the night strong poison. I learnedalso of divers other rivers of that nature among them, which werealso, while the sun was in the meridian, very safe to drink, and in themorning, evening, and night, wonderful dangerous and infective. Fromthis province Berreo hasted away as soon as the spring and beginning ofsummer appeared, and sought his entrance on the borders of Orenoqueon the south side; but there ran a ledge of so high and impassablemountains, as he was not able by any means to march over them, continuing from the east sea into which Orenoque falleth, even to Quitoin Peru. Neither had he means to carry victual or munition over thosecraggy, high, and fast hills, being all woody, and those so thick andspiny, and so full or prickles, thorns, and briars, as it is impossibleto creep through them. He had also neither friendship among the people, nor any interpreter to persuade or treat with them; and more, to hisdisadvantage, the caciques and kings of Amapaia had given knowledge ofhis purpose to the Guianians, and that he sought to sack and conquer theempire, for the hope of their so great abundance and quantities of gold. He passed by the mouths of many great rivers which fell into Orenoqueboth from the north and south, which I forbear to name, for tediousness, and because they are more pleasing in describing than reading. 

Berreo affirmed that there fell an hundred rivers into Orenoque fromthe north and south: whereof the least was as big as Rio Grande (theMagdalena), that passed between Popayan and Nuevo Reyno de Granada, RioGrande being esteemed one of the renowned rivers in all the West Indies, and numbered among the great rivers of the world. But he knew not thenames of any of these, but Caroli only; neither from what nations theydescended, neither to what provinces they led, for he had no means todiscourse with the inhabitants at any time; neither was he curious inthese things, being utterly unlearned, and not knowing the east from thewest. But of all these I got some knowledge, and of many more, partly bymine own travel, and the rest by conference; of some one I learned one, of others the rest, having with me an Indian that spake many languages, and that of Guiana (the Carib) naturally. I sought out all the aged men, and such as were greatest travellers. And by the one and the other Icame to understand the situations, the rivers, the kingdoms from theeast sea to the borders of Peru, and from Orenoque southward as far asAmazons or Maranon, and the regions of Marinatambal (north coasts ofBrazil), and of all the kings of provinces, and captains of townsand villages, how they stood in terms of peace or war, and which werefriends or enemies the one with the other; without which there can beneither entrance nor conquest in those parts, nor elsewhere. For by thedissension between Guascar and Atabalipa, Pizarro conquered Peru, and bythe hatred that the Tlaxcallians bare to Mutezuma, Cortes was victoriousover Mexico; without which both the one and the other had failed oftheir enterprise, and of the great honour and riches which they attainedunto. 

Now Berreo began to grow into despair, and looked for no other successthan his predecessor in this enterprise; until such time as he arrivedat the province of Emeria towards the east sea and mouth of the river, where he found a nation of people very favourable, and the country fullof all manner of victual. The king of this land is called Carapana, aman very wise, subtle, and of great experience, being little less thanan hundred years old. In his youth he was sent by his father into theisland of Trinidad, by reason of civil war among themselves, and wasbred at a village in that island, called Parico. At that place in hisyouth he had seen many Christians, both French and Spanish, and wentdivers times with the Indians of Trinidad to Margarita and Cumana, inthe West Indies, for both those places have ever been relieved withvictual from Trinidad: by reason whereof he grew of more understanding, and noted the difference of the nations, comparing the strength and armsof his country with those of the Christians, and ever after temporisedso as whosoever else did amiss, or was wasted by contention, Carapanakept himself and his country in quiet and plenty. He also held peacewith the Caribs or cannibals, his neighbours, and had free trade withall nations, whosoever else had war. 

Berreo sojourned and rested his weak troop in the town of Carapanasix weeks, and from him learned the way and passage to Guiana, andthe riches and magnificence thereof. But being then utterly unable toproceed, he determined to try his fortune another year, when he hadrenewed his provisions, and regathered more force, which he hoped foras well out of Spain as from Nuevo Reyno, where he had left his sonDon Antonio Ximenes to second him upon the first notice given of hisentrance; and so for the present embarked himself in canoas, and bythe branches of Orenoque arrived at Trinidad, having from Carapanasufficient pilots to conduct him. From Trinidad he coasted Paria, and sorecovered Margarita; and having made relation to Don Juan Sarmiento, theGovernor, of his proceeding, and persuaded him of the riches of Guiana, he obtained from thence fifty soldiers, promising presently to returnto Carapana, and so into Guiana. But Berreo meant nothing less at thattime; for he wanted many provisions necessary for such an enterprise, and therefore departed from Margarita, seated himself in Trinidad, andfrom thence sent his camp-master and his sergeant-major back to theborders to discover the nearest passage into the empire, as also totreat with the borderers, and to draw them to his party and love;without which, he knew he could neither pass safely, nor in any sort berelieved with victual or aught else. Carapana directed his company to aking called Morequito, assuring them that no man could deliver so muchGuiana as Morequito could, and that his dwelling was but five days'journey from Macureguarai, the first civil town of Guiana. 

Now your lordship shall understand that this Morequito, one of thegreatest lords or kings of the borders of Guiana, had two or three yearsbefore been at Cumana and at Margarita, in the West Indies, with greatstore of plates of gold, which he carried to exchange for such otherthings as he wanted in his own country, and was daily feasted, andpresented by the governors of those places, and held amongst them sometwo months. In which time one Vides, Governor of Cumana, won him to behis conductor into Guiana, being allured by those croissants and imagesof gold which he brought with him to trade, as also by the ancient fameand magnificence of El Dorado; whereupon Vides sent into Spain for apatent to discover and conquer Guiana, not knowing of the precedence ofBerreo's patent; which, as Berreo affirmeth, was signed before thatof Vidas. So as when Vides understood of Berreo and that he had madeentrance into that territory, and foregone his desire and hope, it wasverily thought that Vides practised with Morequito to hinder and disturbBerreo in all he could, and not to suffer him to enter through hisseignory, nor any of his companies; neither to victual, nor guide themin any sort. For Vides, Governor of Cumana, and Berreo, were becomemortal enemies, as well for that Berreo had gotten Trinidad into hispatent with Guiana, as also in that he was by Berreo prevented in thejourney of Guiana itself. Howsoever it was, I know not, but Morequitofor a time dissembled his disposition, suffered ten Spaniards and afriar, which Berreo had sent to discover Manoa, to travel through hiscountry, gave them a guide for Macureguarai, the first town of civil andapparelled people, from whence they had other guides to bring them toManoa, the great city of Inga; and being furnished with those thingswhich they had learned of Carapana were of most price in Guiana, wentonward, and in eleven days arrived at Manoa, as Berreo affirmeth forcertain; although I could not be assured thereof by the lord which nowgoverneth the province of Morequito, for he told me that they got allthe gold they had in other towns on this side Manoa, there beingmany very great and rich, and (as he said) built like the towns ofChristians, with many rooms. 

When these ten Spaniards were returned, and ready to put out of theborder of Aromaia (the district below the Caroni river), the people ofMorequito set upon them, and slew them all but one that swam the river, and took from them to the value of 40, 000 pesos of gold; and one of themonly lived to bring the news to Berreo, that both his nine soldiers andholy father were benighted in the said province. I myself spake with thecaptains of Morequito that slew them, and was at the place where it wasexecuted. Berreo, enraged herewithal, sent all the strength he couldmake into Aromaia, to be revenged of him, his people, and country. ButMorequito, suspecting the same, fled over Orenoque, and through theterritories of the Saima and Wikiri recovered Cumana, where he thoughthimself very safe, with Vides the governor. But Berreo sending for himin the king's name, and his messengers finding him in the house of oneFajardo, on the sudden, ere he was suspected, so as he could not then beconveyed away, Vides durst not deny him, as well to avoid the suspicionof the practice, as also for that an holy father was slain by him andhis people. Morequito offered Fajardo the weight of three quintals ingold, to let him escape; but the poor Guianian, betrayed on all sides, was delivered to the camp-master of Berreo, and was presently executed. 

After the death of this Morequito, the soldiers of Berreo spoiled histerritory and took divers prisoners. Among others they took the uncleof Morequito, called Topiawari, who is now king of Aromaia, whose sonI brought with me into England, and is a man of great understandingand policy; he is above an hundred years old, and yet is of a very ablebody. The Spaniards led him in a chain seventeen days, and made himtheir guide from place to place between his country and Emeria, theprovince of Carapana aforesaid, and he was at last redeemed for anhundred plates of gold, and divers stones called piedras hijadas, or spleen-stones. Now Berreo for executing of Morequito, and othercruelties, spoils, and slaughters done in Aromaia, hath lost the love ofthe Orenoqueponi, and of all the borderers, and dare not send any of hissoldiers any further into the land than to Carapana, which he calledthe port of Guiana; but from thence by the help of Carapana he had tradefurther into the country, and always appointed ten Spaniards to residein Carapana's town (the Spanish settlement of Santo Tome de la Guyana, founded by Berrio in 1591 or 1592, but represented by Raleigh as anIndian pueblo), by whose favour, and by being conducted by his people, those ten searched the country thereabouts, as well for mines as forother trades and commodities. 

They also have gotten a nephew of Morequito, whom they have christenedand named Don Juan, of whom they have great hope, endeavouring by allmeans to establish him in the said province. Among many other trades, those Spaniards used canoas to pass to the rivers of Barema, Pawroma, and Dissequebe (Essequibo), which are on the south side of the mouth ofOrenoque, and there buy women and children from the cannibals, which areof that barbarous nature, as they will for three or four hatchetssell the sons and daughters of their own brethren and sisters, and forsomewhat more even their own daughters. Hereof the Spaniards make greatprofit; for buying a maid of twelve or thirteen years for three or fourhatchets, they sell them again at Margarita in the West Indies for fiftyand an hundred pesos, which is so many crowns. 

The master of my ship, John Douglas, took one of the canoas which cameladen from thence with people to be sold, and the most of them escaped;yet of those he brought, there was one as well favoured and as wellshaped as ever I saw any in England; and afterwards I saw many of them, which but for their tawny colour may be compared to any in Europe. Theyalso trade in those rivers for bread of cassavi, of which they buyan hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at Margarita for tenpesos. They also recover great store of cotton, Brazil wood, and thosebeds which they call hamacas or Brazil beds, wherein in hot countriesall the Spaniards use to lie commonly, and in no other, neither did weourselves while we were there. By means of which trades, for ransom ofdivers of the Guianians, and for exchange of hatchets and knives, Berreorecovered some store of gold plates, eagles of gold, and images of menand divers birds, and dispatched his camp-master for Spain, with allthat he had gathered, therewith to levy soldiers, and by the showthereof to draw others to the love of the enterprise. And having sentdivers images as well of men as beasts, birds, and fishes, so curiouslywrought in gold, he doubted not but to persuade the king to yield to himsome further help, especially for that this land hath never been sacked, the mines never wrought, and in the Indies their works were well spent, and the gold drawn out with great labour and charge. He also despatchedmessengers to his son in Nuevo Reyno to levy all the forces he could, and to come down the river Orenoque to Emeria, the province of Carapana, to meet him; he had also sent to Santiago de Leon on the coast of theCaracas, to buy horses and mules. 

After I had thus learned of his proceedings past and purposed, I toldhim that I had resolved to see Guiana, and that it was the end of myjourney, and the cause of my coming to Trinidad, as it was indeed, and for that purpose I sent Jacob Whiddon the year before to getintelligence: with whom Berreo himself had speech at that time, andremembered how inquisitive Jacob Whiddon was of his proceedings, and ofthe country of Guiana. Berreo was stricken into a great melancholy andsadness, and used all the arguments he could to dissuade me; and alsoassured the gentlemen of my company that it would be labour lost, andthat they should suffer many miseries if they proceeded. And first hedelivered that I could not enter any of the rivers with any bark orpinnace, or hardly with any ship's boat, it was so low, sandy, and fullof flats, and that his companies were daily grounded in their canoes, which drew but twelve inches water. He further said that none of thecountry would come to speak with us, but would all fly; and if wefollowed them to their dwellings, they would burn their own towns. Andbesides that, the way was long, the winter at hand, and that the riversbeginning once to swell, it was impossible to stem the current; and thatwe could not in those small boats by any means carry victuals for halfthe time, and that (which indeed most discouraged my company) the kingsand lords of all the borders of Guiana had decreed that none of themshould trade with any Christians for gold, because the same would betheir own overthrow, and that for the love of gold the Christians meantto conquer and dispossess them of all together. 

Many and the most of these I found to be true; but yet I resolving tomake trial of whatsoever happened, directed Captain George Gifford, myVice-Admiral, to take the Lion's Whelp, and Captain Caulfield his bark, to turn to the eastward, against the mouth of a river called Capuri, whose entrance I had before sent Captain Whiddon and John Douglas themaster to discover. Who found some nine foot water or better upon theflood, and five at low water: to whom I had given instructions that theyshould anchor at the edge of the shoal, and upon the best of the floodto thrust over, which shoal John Douglas buoyed and beckoned (beaconed)for them before. But they laboured in vain; for neither could they turnit up altogether so far to the east, neither did the flood continue solong, but the water fell ere they could have passed the sands. As weafter found by a second experience: so as now we must either give overour enterprise, or leaving our ships at adventure 400 mile behind us, must run up in our ship's boats, one barge, and two wherries. But beingdoubtful how to carry victuals for so long a time in such baubles, orany strength of men, especially for that Berreo assured us that his sonmust be by that time come down with many soldiers, I sent away one King, master of the Lion's Whelp, with his ship-boat, to try another branch ofthe river in the bottom of the Bay of Guanipa, which was called Amana, to prove if there were water to be found for either of the small shipsto enter. But when he came to the mouth of Amana, he found it as therest, but stayed not to discover it thoroughly, because he was assuredby an Indian, his guide, that the cannibals of Guanipa would assail themwith many canoas, and that they shot poisoned arrows; so as if he hastednot back, they should all be lost. 

In the meantime, fearing the worst, I caused all the carpenters we hadto cut down a galego boat, which we meant to cast off, and to fit herwith banks to row on, and in all things to prepare her the best theycould, so as she might be brought to draw but five foot: for so much wehad on the bar of Capuri at low water. And doubting of King's return, I sent John Douglas again in my long barge, as well to relieve him, asalso to make a perfect search in the bottom of the bay; for it hath beenheld for infallible, that whatsoever ship or boat shall fall therein cannever disemboque again, by reason of the violent current which settethinto the said bay, as also for that the breeze and easterly wind blowethdirectly into the same. Of which opinion I have heard John Hampton(Captain of the Minion in the third voyage of Hawkins), of Plymouth, one of the greatest experience of England, and divers other besides thathave traded to Trinidad. 

I sent with John Douglas an old cacique of Trinidad for a pilot, whotold us that we could not return again by the bay or gulf, but thathe knew a by-branch which ran within the land to the eastward, and hethought by it we might fall into Capuri, and so return in four days. John Douglas searched those rivers, and found four goodly entrances, whereof the least was as big as the Thames at Woolwich, but in thebay thitherward it was shoal and but six foot water; so as we were nowwithout hope of any ship or bark to pass over, and therefore resolved togo on with the boats, and the bottom of the galego, in which we thrust60 men. In the Lion's Whelp's boat and wherry we carried twenty, CaptainCaulfield in his wherry carried ten more, and in my barge other ten, which made up a hundred; we had no other means but to carry victual fora month in the same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to boiland dress our meat. Captain Gifford had with him Master Edward Porter, Captain Eynos, and eight more in his wherry, with all their victual, weapons, and provisions. Captain Caulfield had with him my cousinButshead Gorges, and eight more. In the galley, of gentlemen andofficers myself had Captain Thyn, my cousin John Greenvile, my nephewJohn Gilbert, Captain Whiddon, Captain Keymis, Edward Hancock, CaptainClarke, Lieutenant Hughes, Thomas Upton, Captain Facy, Jerome Ferrar, Anthony Wells, William Connock, and above fifty more. We could not learnof Berreo any other way to enter but in branches so far to windward asit was impossible for us to recover; for we had as much sea to crossover in our wherries, as between Dover and Calice, and in a greathollow, the wind and current being both very strong. So as we weredriven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into thebottom of the Bay of Guanipa, and from thence to enter the mouth of someone of those rivers which John Douglas had last discovered; and hadwith us for pilot an Indian of Barema, a river to the south of Orenoque, between that and Amazons, whose canoas we had formerly taken as hewas going from the said Barema, laden with cassavi bread to sell atMargarita. This Arwacan promised to bring me into the great river ofOrenoque; but indeed of that which he entered he was utterly ignorant, for he had not seen it in twelve years before, at which time he was veryyoung, and of no judgment. And if God had not sent us another help, wemight have wandered a whole year in that labyrinth of rivers, ere we hadfound any way, either out or in, especially after we were past ebbingand flowing, which was in four days. For I know all the earth doth notyield the like confluence of streams and branches, the one crossingthe other so many times, and all so fair and large, and so like one toanother, as no man can tell which to take: and if we went by the sun orcompass, hoping thereby to go directly one way or other, yet that way wewere also carried in a circle amongst multitudes of islands, and everyisland so bordered with high trees as no man could see any further thanthe breadth of the river, or length of the breach. But this it chanced, that entering into a river (which because it had no name, we called theRiver of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first Christians that evercame therein), the 22. Of May, as we were rowing up the same, we espieda small canoa with three Indians, which by the swiftness of my barge, rowing with eight oars, I overtook ere they could cross the river. Therest of the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick wood, gazedon with a doubtful conceit what might befall those three which we hadtaken. But when they perceived that we offered them no violence, neitherentered their canoa with any of ours, nor took out of the canoa anyof theirs, they then began to show themselves on the bank's side, andoffered to traffic with us for such things as they had. And as we drewnear, they all stayed; and we came with our barge to the mouth of alittle creek which came from their town into the great river. 

As we abode here awhile, our Indian pilot, called Ferdinando, wouldneeds go ashore to their village to fetch some fruits and to drink oftheir artificial wines, and also to see the place and know the lord ofit against another time, and took with him a brother of his which he hadwith him in the journey. When they came to the village of these peoplethe lord of the island offered to lay hands on them, purposing tohave slain them both; yielding for reason that this Indian of ours hadbrought a strange nation into their territory to spoil and destroy them. But the pilot being quick and of a disposed body, slipt their fingersand ran into the woods, and his brother, being the better footman of thetwo, recovered the creek's mouth, where we stayed in our barge, cryingout that his brother was slain. With that we set hands on one of themthat was next us, a very old man, and brought him into the barge, assuring him that if we had not our pilot again we would presently cutoff his head. This old man, being resolved that he should pay the lossof the other, cried out to those in the woods to save Ferdinando, ourpilot; but they followed him notwithstanding, and hunted after him uponthe foot with their deer-dogs, and with so main a cry that all the woodsechoed with the shout they made. But at the last this poor chased Indianrecovered the river side and got upon a tree, and, as we were coasting, leaped down and swam to the barge half dead with fear. But our good hapwas that we kept the other old Indian, which we handfasted to redeem ourpilot withal; for, being natural of those rivers, we assured ourselvesthat he knew the way better than any stranger could. And, indeed, butfor this chance, I think we had never found the way either to Guiana orback to our ships; for Ferdinando after a few days knew nothing at all, nor which way to turn; yea, and many times the old man himself wasin great doubt which river to take. Those people which dwell in thesebroken islands and drowned lands are generally called Tivitivas. Thereare of them two sorts; the one called Ciawani, and the other Waraweete. 

The great river of Orenoque or Baraquan hath nine branches which fallout on the north side of his own main mouth. On the south side it hathseven other fallings into the sea, so it disemboqueth by sixteen arms inall, between islands and broken ground; but the islands are very great, many of them as big as the Isle of Wight, and bigger, and many less. From the first branch on the north to the last of the south it is atleast 100 leagues, so as the river's mouth is 300 miles wide at hisentrance into the sea, which I take to be far bigger than that ofAmazons. All those that inhabit in the mouth of this river upon theseveral north branches are these Tivitivas, of which there are two chieflords which have continual wars one with the other. The islands whichlie on the right hand are called Pallamos, and the land on the left, Hororotomaka; and the river by which John Douglas returned within theland from Amana to Capuri they call Macuri. 

These Tivitivas are a very goodly people and very valiant, and have themost manly speech and most deliberate that ever I heard of what nationsoever. In the summer they have houses on the ground, as in otherplaces; in the winter they dwell upon the trees, where they build veryartificial towns and villages, as it is written in the Spanish story ofthe West Indies that those people do in the low lands near the gulf ofUraba. For between May and September the river of Orenoque riseth thirtyfoot upright, and then are those islands overflown twenty foot highabove the level of the ground, saving some few raised grounds in themiddle of them; and for this cause they are enforced to live in thismanner. They never eat of anything that is set or sown; and as at homethey use neither planting nor other manurance, so when they come abroadthey refuse to feed of aught but of that which nature without labourbringeth forth. They use the tops of palmitos for bread, and kill deer, fish, and porks for the rest of their sustenance. They have also manysorts of fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of birds andfowls; and if to speak of them were not tedious and vulgar, surely wesaw in those passages of very rare colours and forms not elsewhere to befound, for as much as I have either seen or read. 

Of these people those that dwell upon the branches of Orenoque, calledCapuri, and Macureo, are for the most part carpenters of canoas; forthey make the most and fairest canoas; and sell them into Guiana forgold and into Trinidad for tabacco, in the excessive taking whereofthey exceed all nations. And notwithstanding the moistness of the air inwhich they live, the hardness of their diet, and the great labours theysuffer to hunt, fish, and fowl for their living, in all my life, either in the Indies or in Europe, did I never behold a more goodly orbetter-favoured people or a more manly. They were wont to make war uponall nations, and especially on the Cannibals, so as none durst without agood strength trade by those rivers; but of late they are at peace withtheir neighbours, all holding the Spaniards for a common enemy. Whentheir commanders die they use great lamentation; and when they thinkthe flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from their bones, thenthey take up the carcase again and hang it in the cacique's house thatdied, and deck his skull with feathers of all colours, and hang allhis gold plates about the bones of this arms, thighs, and legs. Thosenations which are called Arwacas, which dwell on the south of Orenoque, of which place and nation our Indian pilot was, are dispersed in manyother places, and do use to beat the bones of their lords into powder, and their wives and friends drink it all in their several sorts ofdrinks. 

After we departed from the port of these Ciawani we passed up the riverwith the flood and anchored the ebb, and in this sort we went onward. The third day that we entered the river, our galley came on ground; andstuck so fast as we thought that even there our discovery had ended, andthat we must have left four-score and ten of our men to have inhabited, like rooks upon trees, with those nations. But the next morning, afterwe had cast out all her ballast, with tugging and hauling to and fro wegot her afloat and went on. At four days' end we fell into as goodly ariver as ever I beheld, which was called the great Amana, which ran moredirectly without windings and turnings than the other. But soon afterthe flood of the sea left us; and, being enforced either by mainstrength to row against a violent current, or to return as wise as wewent out, we had then no shift but to persuade the companies that it wasbut two or three days' work, and therefore desired them to take pains, every gentleman and others taking their turns to row, and to spell onethe other at the hour's end. Every day we passed by goodly branches ofrivers, some falling from the west, others from the east, into Amana;but those I leave to the description in the chart of discovery, whereevery one shall be named with his rising and descent. When three daysmore were overgone, our companies began to despair, the weather beingextreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away theair, and the current against us every day stronger than other. But weevermore commanded our pilots to promise an end the next day, and usedit so long as we were driven to assure them from four reaches of theriver to three, and so to two, and so to the next reach. But so long welaboured that many days were spent, and we driven to draw ourselves toharder allowance, our bread even at the last, and no drink at all;and our men and ourselves so wearied and scorched, and doubtful withalwhether we should ever perform it or no, the heat increasing as we drewtowards the line; for we were now in five degrees. 

The further we went on, our victual decreasing and the air breedinggreat faintness, we grew weaker and weaker, when we had most need ofstrength and ability. For hourly the river ran more violently than otheragainst us, and the barge, wherries, and ship's boat of Captain Giffordand Captain Caulfield had spent all their provisions; so as we werebrought into despair and discomfort, had we not persuaded all thecompany that it was but only one day's work more to attain the landwhere we should be relieved of all we wanted, and if we returned, thatwe were sure to starve by the way, and that the world would also laughus to scorn. On the banks of these rivers were divers sorts of fruitsgood to eat, flowers and trees of such variety as were sufficient tomake ten volumes of Herbals; we relieved ourselves many times with thefruits of the country, and sometimes with fowl and fish. We saw birds ofall colours, some carnation, some crimson, orange-tawny, purple, watchet(pale blue), and of all other sorts, both simple and mixed, and it wasunto us a great good-passing of the time to behold them, besides therelief we found by killing some store of them with our fowling-pieces;without which, having little or no bread, and less drink, but only thethick and troubled water of the river, we had been in a very hard case. 

Our old pilot of the Ciawani, whom, as I said before, we took to redeemFerdinando, told us, that if we would enter a branch of a river on theright hand with our barge and wherries, and leave the galley at anchorthe while in the great river, he would bring us to a town of theArwacas, where we should find store of bread, hens, fish, and of thecountry wine; and persuaded us, that departing from the galley at noonwe might return ere night. I was very glad to hear this speech, andpresently took my barge, with eight musketeers, Captain Gifford'swherry, with himself and four musketeers, and Captain Caulfield withhis wherry, and as many; and so we entered the mouth of this river; andbecause we were persuaded that it was so near, we took no victual withus at all. When we had rowed three hours, we marvelled we saw no signof any dwelling, and asked the pilot where the town was; he told us, a little further. After three hours more, the sun being almost set, webegan to suspect that he led us that way to betray us; for he confessedthat those Spaniards which fled from Trinidad, and also those thatremained with Carapana in Emeria, were joined together in some villageupon that river. But when it grew towards night, and we demanded wherethe place was, he told us but four reaches more. When we had rowed fourand four, we saw no sign; and our poor watermen, even heart-broken andtired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we had now come from thegalley near forty miles. 

At the last we determined to hang the pilot; and if we had well knownthe way back again by night, he had surely gone. But our own necessitiespleaded sufficiently for his safety; for it was as dark as pitch, andthe river began so to narrow itself, and the trees to hang over fromside to side, as we were driven with arming swords to cut a passagethrough those branches that covered the water. We were very desirous tofind this town hoping of a feast, because we made but a short breakfastaboard the galley in the morning, and it was now eight o'clock at night, and our stomachs began to gnaw apace; but whether it was best to returnor go on, we began to doubt, suspecting treason in the pilot more andmore; but the poor old Indian ever assured us that it was but a littlefurther, but this one turning and that turning; and at the last aboutone o'clock after midnight we saw a light, and rowing towards it weheard the dogs of the village. When we landed we found few people; forthe lord of that place was gone with divers canoas above 400 miles off, upon a journey towards the head of Orenoque, to trade for gold, and tobuy women of the Cannibals, who afterwards unfortunately passed by us aswe rode at an anchor in the port of Morequito in the dark of the night, and yet came so near us as his canoas grated against our barges; he leftone of his company at the port of Morequito, by whom we understood thathe had brought thirty young women, divers plates of gold, and had greatstore of fine pieces of cotton cloth, and cotton beds. In his house wehad good store of bread, fish, hens, and Indian drink, and so restedthat night; and in the morning, after we had traded with such of hispeople as came down, we returned towards our galley, and brought with ussome quantity of bread, fish, and hens. 

On both sides of this river we passed the most beautiful country thatever mine eyes beheld; and whereas all that we had seen before wasnothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thorns, here we beheld plainsof twenty miles in length, the grass short and green, and in diversparts groves of trees by themselves, as if they had been by all the artand labour in the world so made of purpose; and still as we rowed, thedeer came down feeding by the water's side as if they had been used toa keeper's call. Upon this river there were great store of fowl, andof many sorts; we saw in it divers sorts of strange fishes, and ofmarvellous bigness; but for lagartos (alligators and caymans) itexceeded, for there were thousands of those ugly serpents; and thepeople call it, for the abundance of them, the River of Lagartos, intheir language. I had a negro, a very proper young fellow, who leapingout of the galley to swim in the mouth of this river, was in all oursights taken and devoured with one of those lagartos. In the meanwhileour companies in the galley thought we had been all lost, for wepromised to return before night; and sent the Lion's Whelp's ship's boatwith Captain Whiddon to follow us up the river. But the next day, afterwe had rowed up and down some fourscore miles, we returned, and went onour way up the great river; and when we were even at the last cast forwant of victuals, Captain Gifford being before the galley and the restof the boats, seeking out some place to land upon the banks to makefire, espied four canoas coming down the river; and with no small joycaused his men to try the uttermost of their strengths, and after awhile two of the four gave over and ran themselves ashore, every manbetaking himself to the fastness of the woods. The two other lessergot away, while he landed to lay hold on these; and so turned into someby-creek, we knew not whither. Those canoas that were taken were loadedwith bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies, which thoseIndians, called Arwacas, proposed to carry thither for exchange; but inthe lesser there were three Spaniards, who having heard of the defeat oftheir Governor in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, cameaway in those canoas; one of them was a cavallero, as the captain of theArwacas after told us, another a soldier and the third a refiner. 

In the meantime, nothing on the earth could have been more welcome tous, next unto gold, than the great store of very excellent bread whichwe found in these canoas; for now our men cried, "Let us go on, we carenot how far. " After that Captain Gifford had brought the two canoas tothe galley, I took my barge and went to the bank's side with a dozenshot, where the canoas first ran themselves ashore, and landed there, sending out Captain Gifford and Captain Thyn on one hand and CaptainCaulfield on the other, to follow those that were fled into the woods. And as I was creeping through the bushes, I saw an Indian basket hidden, which was the refiner's basket; for I found in it his quicksilver, saltpetre, and divers things for the trial of metals, and also the dustof such ore as he had refined; but in those canoas which escaped therewas a good quantity of ore and gold. I then landed more men, and offeredfive hundred pound to what soldier soever could take one of those threeSpaniards that we thought were landed. But our labours were in vain inthat behalf, for they put themselves into one of the small canoas, andso, while the greater canoas were in taking, they escaped. But seekingafter the Spaniards we found the Arwacas hidden in the woods, which werepilots for the Spaniards, and rowed their canoas. Of which I kept thechiefest for a pilot, and carried him with me to Guiana; by whom Iunderstood where and in what countries the Spaniards had laboured forgold, though I made not the same known to all. For when the springsbegan to break, and the rivers to raise themselves so suddenly as by nomeans we could abide the digging of any mine, especially for that therichest are defended with rocks of hard stones, which we call the whitespar, and that it required both time, men, and instruments fit for sucha work, I thought it best not to hover thereabouts, lest if the same hadbeen perceived by the company, there would have been by this time manybarks and ships set out, and perchance other nations would alsohave gotten of ours for pilots. So as both ourselves might have beenprevented, and all our care taken for good usage of the people beenutterly lost, by those that only respect present profit; and suchviolence or insolence offered as the nations which are bordererswould have changed the desire of our love and defence into hatred andviolence. And for any longer stay to have brought a more quantity, whichI hear hath been often objected, whosoever had seen or proved the furyof that river after it began to arise, and had been a month and odddays, as we were, from hearing aught from our ships, leaving them meanlymanned 400 miles off, would perchance have turned somewhat sooner thanwe did, if all the mountains had been gold, or rich stones. And to saythe truth, all the branches and small rivers which fell into Orenoquewere raised with such speed, as if we waded them over the shoes in themorning outward, we were covered to the shoulders homeward the very sameday; and to stay to dig our gold with our nails, had been opus laborisbut not ingenii. Such a quantity as would have served our turns we couldnot have had, but a discovery of the mines to our infinite disadvantagewe had made, and that could have been the best profit of farther searchor stay; for those mines are not easily broken, nor opened in haste, andI could have returned a good quantity of gold ready cast if I had notshot at another mark than present profit. 

This Arwacan pilot, with the rest, feared that we would have eaten them, or otherwise have put them to some cruel death: for the Spaniards, tothe end that none of the people in the passage towards Guiana, or inGuiana itself, might come to speech with us, persuaded all the nationsthat we were men-eaters and cannibals. But when the poor men and womenhad seen us, and that we gave them meat, and to every one something orother which was rare and strange to them, they began to conceive thedeceit and purpose of the Spaniards, who indeed, as they confessedtook from them both their wives and daughters daily . . . But I protestbefore the Majesty of the living God, that I neither know nor believe, that any of our company, one or other, did offer insult to any of theirwomen, and yet we saw many hundreds, and had many in our power, and ofthose very young and excellently favoured, which came among us withoutdeceit, stark naked. Nothing got us more love amongst them than thisusage; for I suffered not any man to take from any of the nationsso much as a pina (pineapple) or a potato root without giving themcontentment, nor any man so much as to offer to touch any of their wivesor daughters; which course, so contrary to the Spaniards, who tyrannizeover them in all things, drew them to admire her Majesty, whosecommandment I told them it was, and also wonderfully to honour ournation. But I confess it was a very impatient work to keep the meanersort from spoil and stealing when we came to their houses; which becausein all I could not prevent, I caused my Indian interpreter at everyplace when we departed, to know of the loss or wrong done, and if aughtwere stolen or taken by violence, either the same was restored, and theparty punished in their sight, or else was paid for to their uttermostdemand. They also much wondered at us, after they heard that we hadslain the Spaniards at Trinidad, for they were before resolved that nonation of Christians durst abide their presence; and they wondered morewhen I had made them know of the great overthrow that her Majesty's armyand fleet had given them of late years in their own countries. 

After we had taken in this supply of bread, with divers baskets ofroots, which were excellent meat, I gave one of the canoas to theArwacas, which belonged to the Spaniards that were escaped; and when Ihad dismissed all but the captain, who by the Spaniards was christenedMartin, I sent back in the same canoa the old Ciawani, and Ferdinando, my first pilot, and gave them both such things as they desired, withsufficient victual to carry them back, and by them wrote a letter to theships, which they promised to deliver, and performed it; and then I wenton, with my new hired pilot, Martin the Arwacan. But the next or secondday after, we came aground again with our galley, and were like to casther away, with all our victual and provision, and so lay on the sand onewhole night, and were far more in despair at this time to free her thanbefore, because we had no tide of flood to help us, and therefore fearedthat all our hopes would have ended in mishaps. But we fastened ananchor upon the land, and with main strength drew her off; and so thefifteenth day we discovered afar off the mountains of Guiana, to ourgreat joy, and towards the evening had a slent (push) of a northerlywind that blew very strong, which brought us in sight of the great riverOrenoque; out of which this river descended wherein we were. We descriedafar off three other canoas as far as we could discern them, after whomwe hastened with our barge and wherries, but two of them passed out ofsight, and the third entered up the great river, on the right hand tothe westward, and there stayed out of sight, thinking that we meant totake the way eastward towards the province of Carapana; for that way theSpaniards keep, not daring to go upwards to Guiana, the people in thoseparts being all their enemies, and those in the canoas thought us tohave been those Spaniards that were fled from Trinidad, and escapedkilling. And when we came so far down as the opening of that branch intowhich they slipped, being near them with our barge and wherries, wemade after them, and ere they could land came within call, and by ourinterpreter told them what we were, wherewith they came back willinglyaboard us; and of such fish and tortugas' (turtles) eggs as they hadgathered they gave us, and promised in the morning to bring the lord ofthat part with them, and to do us all other services they could. Thatnight we came to an anchor at the parting of the three goodly rivers(the one was the river of Amana, by which we came from the north, andran athwart towards the south, the other two were of Orenoque, whichcrossed from the west and ran to the sea towards the east) and landedupon a fair sand, where we found thousands of tortugas' eggs, which arevery wholesome meat, and greatly restoring; so as our men were now wellfilled and highly contented both with the fare, and nearness of the landof Guiana, which appeared in sight. 

In the morning there came down, according to promise, the lord of thatborder, called Toparimaca, with some thirty or forty followers, andbrought us divers sorts of fruits, and of his wine, bread, fish, andflesh, whom we also feasted as we could; at least we drank good Spanishwine, whereof we had a small quantity in bottles, which above all thingsthey love. I conferred with this Toparimaca of the next way to Guiana, who conducted our galley and boats to his own port, and carried us fromthence some mile and a-half to his town; where some of our captainscaroused of his wine till they were reasonable pleasant, for it is verystrong with pepper, and the juice of divers herbs and fruits digestedand purged. They keep it in great earthen pots of ten or twelve gallons, very clean and sweet, and are themselves at their meetings and feaststhe greatest carousers and drunkards of the world. When we came to histown we found two caciques, whereof one was a stranger that had been upthe river in trade, and his boats, people, and wife encamped at theport where we anchored; and the other was of that country, a followerof Toparimaca. They lay each of them in a cotton hamaca, which we callBrazil beds, and two women attending them with six cups, and a littleladle to fill them out of an earthen pitcher of wine; and so they drankeach of them three of those cups at a time one to the other, and in thissort they drink drunk at their feasts and meetings. 

That cacique that was a stranger had his wife staying at the port wherewe anchored, and in all my life I have seldom seen a better favouredwoman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of anexcellent countenance, her hair almost as long as herself, tied up againin pretty knots; and it seemed she stood not in that awe of her husbandas the rest, for she spake and discoursed, and drank among the gentlemenand captains, and was very pleasant, knowing her own comeliness, andtaking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in England so like toher, as but for the difference of colour, I would have sworn might havebeen the same. 

The seat of this town of Toparimaca was very pleasant, standing ona little hill, in an excellent prospect, with goodly gardens a milecompass round about it, and two very fair and large ponds of excellentfish adjoining. This town is called Arowocai; the people are of thenation called Nepoios, and are followers of Carapana. In that place Isaw very aged people, that we might perceive all their sinews and veinswithout any flesh, and but even as a case covered only with skin. The lord of this place gave me an old man for pilot, who was of greatexperience and travel, and knew the river most perfectly both by dayand night. And it shall be requisite for any man that passeth it to havesuch a pilot; for it is four, five, and six miles over in many places, and twenty miles in other places, with wonderful eddies and strongcurrents, many great islands, and divers shoals, and many dangerousrocks; and besides upon any increase of wind so great a billow, as wewere sometimes in great peril of drowning in the galley, for the smallboats durst not come from the shore but when it was very fair. 

The next day we hasted thence, and having an easterly wind to help us, we spared our arms from rowing; for after we entered Orenoque, the riverlieth for the most part east and west, even from the sea unto Quito, inPeru. This river is navigable with barks little less than 1000 miles;and from the place where we entered it may be sailed up in smallpinnaces to many of the best parts of Nuevo Reyno de Granada and ofPopayan. And from no place may the cities of these parts of the Indiesbe so easily taken and invaded as from hence. All that day we sailed upa branch of that river, having on the left hand a great island, whichthey call Assapana, which may contain some five-and-twenty miles inlength, and six miles in breadth, the great body of the river running onthe other side of this island. Beyond that middle branch there is alsoanother island in the river, called Iwana, which is twice as big as theIsle of Wight; and beyond it, and between it and the main of Guiana, runneth a third branch of Orenoque, called Arraroopana. All three aregoodly branches, and all navigable for great ships. I judge the riverin this place to be at least thirty miles broad, reckoning the islandswhich divide the branches in it, for afterwards I sought also both theother branches. 

After we reached to the head of the island called Assapana, a little tothe westward on the right hand there opened a river which came from thenorth, called Europa, and fell into the great river; and beyond it onthe same side we anchored for that night by another island, six mileslong and two miles broad, which they call Ocaywita. From hence, inthe morning, we landed two Guianians, which we found in the town ofToparimaca, that came with us; who went to give notice of our coming tothe lord of that country, called Putyma, a follower of Topiawari, chief lord of Aromaia, who succeeded Morequito, whom (as you have heardbefore) Berreo put to death. But his town being far within the land, hecame not unto us that day; so as we anchored again that night near thebanks of another land, of bigness much like the other, which they callPutapayma, over against which island, on the main land, was a very highmountain called Oecope. We coveted to anchor rather by these islandsin the river than by the main, because of the tortugas' eggs, which ourpeople found on them in great abundance; and also because the groundserved better for us to cast our nets for fish, the main banks being forthe most part stony and high and the rocks of a blue, metalline colour, like unto the best steel ore, which I assuredly take it to be. Of thesame blue stone are also divers great mountains which border this riverin many places. 

The next morning, towards nine of the clock, we weighed anchor; andthe breeze increasing, we sailed always west up the river, and, aftera while, opening the land on the right side, the country appeared to bechampaign and the banks shewed very perfect red. I therefore sent twoof the little barges with Captain Gifford, and with him Captain Thyn, Captain Caulfield, my cousin Greenvile, my nephew John Gilbert, CaptainEynos, Master Edward Porter, and my cousin Butshead Gorges, with somefew soldiers, to march over the banks of that red land and to discoverwhat manner of country it was on the other side; who at their returnfound it all a plain level as far as they went or could discern fromthe highest tree they could get upon. And my old pilot, a man of greattravel, brother to the cacique Toparimaca, told me that those werecalled the plains of the Sayma, and that the same level reached toCumana and Caracas, in the West Indies, which are a hundred and twentyleagues to the north, and that there inhabited four principal nations. The first were the Sayma, the next Assawai, the third and greatestthe Wikiri, by whom Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, before mentioned, wasoverthrown as he passed with 300 horse from Cumana towards Orenoque inhis enterprise of Guiana. The fourth are called Aroras, and are as blackas negroes, but have smooth hair; and these are very valiant, or ratherdesperate, people, and have the most strong poison on their arrows, andmost dangerous, of all nations, of which I will speak somewhat, being adigression not unnecessary. 

There was nothing whereof I was more curious than to find out the trueremedies of these poisoned arrows. For besides the mortality of thewound they make, the party shot endureth the most insufferable tormentin the world, and abideth a most ugly and lamentable death, sometimesdying stark mad, sometimes their bowels breaking out of their bellies;which are presently discoloured as black as pitch, and so unsavory as noman can endure to cure or to attend them. And it is more strange toknow that in all this time there was never Spaniard, either by gift ortorment, that could attain to the true knowledge of the cure, althoughthey have martyred and put to invented torture I know not how manyof them. But everyone of these Indians know it not, no, not one amongthousands, but their soothsayers and priests, who do conceal it, andonly teach it but from the father to the son. 

Those medicines which are vulgar, and serve for the ordinary poison, are made of the juice of a root called tupara; the same also quenchethmarvellously the heat of burning fevers, and healeth inward wounds andbroken veins that bleed within the body. But I was more beholding to theGuianians than any other; for Antonio de Berreo told me that he couldnever attain to the knowledge thereof, and yet they taught me the bestway of healing as well thereof as of all other poisons. Some of theSpaniards have been cured in ordinary wounds of the common poisonedarrows with the juice of garlic. But this is a general rule for all menthat shall hereafter travel the Indies where poisoned arrows are used, that they must abstain from drink. For if they take any liquor intotheir body, as they shall be marvellously provoked thereunto by drought, I say, if they drink before the wound be dressed, or soon upon it, thereis no way with them but present death. 

And so I will return again to our journey, which for this third daywe finished, and cast anchor again near the continent on the left handbetween two mountains, the one called Aroami and the other Aio. I madeno stay here but till midnight; for I feared hourly lest any rain shouldfall, and then it had been impossible to have gone any further up, notwithstanding that there is every day a very strong breeze andeasterly wind. I deferred the search of the country on Guiana side tillmy return down the river. 

The next day we sailed by a great island in the middle of the river, called Manoripano; and, as we walked awhile on the island, while thegalley got ahead of us, there came for us from the main a small canoawith seven or eight Guianians, to invite us to anchor at their port, but I deferred till my return. It was that cacique to whom those Nepoioswent, which came with us from the town of Toparimaca. And so the fifthday we reached as high up as the province of Aromaia, the country ofMorequito, whom Berreo executed, and anchored to the west of an islandcalled Murrecotima, ten miles long and five broad. And that night thecacique Aramiary, to whose town we made our long and hungry voyage outof the river of Amana, passed by us. 

The next day we arrived at the port of Morequito, and anchored there, sending away one of our pilots to seek the king of Aromaia, uncle toMorequito, slain by Berreo as aforesaid. The next day following, beforenoon, he came to us on foot from his house, which was fourteen Englishmiles, himself being a hundred and ten years old, and returned on footthe same day; and with him many of the borderers, with many womenand children, that came to wonder at our nation and to bring us downvictual, which they did in great plenty, as venison, pork, hens, chickens, fowl, fish, with divers sorts of excellent fruits and roots, and great abundance of pinas, the princess of fruits that grow under thesun, especially those of Guiana. They brought us, also, store of breadand of their wine, and a sort of paraquitos no bigger than wrens, and ofall other sorts both small and great. One of them gave me a beast calledby the Spaniards armadillo, which they call cassacam, which seemeth tobe all barred over with small plates somewhat like to a rhinoceros, witha white horn growing in his hinder parts as big as a great hunting-horn, which they use to wind instead of a trumpet. Monardus (Monardes, Historia Medicinal) writeth that a little of the powder of that horn putinto the ear cureth deafness. 

After this old king had rested awhile in a little tent that I caused tobe set up, I began by my interpreter to discourse with him of the deathof Morequito his predecessor, and afterward of the Spaniards; and ere Iwent any farther I made him know the cause of my coming thither, whoseservant I was, and that the Queen's pleasure was I should undertake thevoyage for their defence, and to deliver them from the tyranny of theSpaniards, dilating at large, as I had done before to those of Trinidad, her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity to all oppressednations, with as many of the rest of her beauties and virtues as eitherI could express or they conceive. All which being with great admirationattentively heard and marvellously admired, I began to sound the old manas touching Guiana and the state thereof, what sort of commonwealth itwas, how governed, of what strength and policy, how far it extended, and what nations were friends or enemies adjoining, and finally of thedistance, and way to enter the same. He told me that himself and hispeople, with all those down the river towards the sea, as far asEmeria, the province of Carapana, were of Guiana, but that they calledthemselves Orenoqueponi, and that all the nations between the river andthose mountains in sight, called Wacarima, were of the same cast andappellation; and that on the other side of those mountains of Wacarimathere was a large plain (which after I discovered in my return) calledthe valley of Amariocapana. In all that valley the people were also ofthe ancient Guianians. 

I asked what nations those were which inhabited on the further side ofthose mountains, beyond the valley of Amariocapana. He answered with agreat sigh (as a man which had inward feeling of the loss of his countryand liberty, especially for that his eldest son was slain in a battleon that side of the mountains, whom he most entirely loved) that heremembered in his father's lifetime, when he was very old and himselfa young man, that there came down into that large valley of Guiana anation from so far off as the sun slept (for such were his own words), with so great a multitude as they could not be numbered nor resisted, and that they wore large coats, and hats of crimson colour, whichcolour he expressed by shewing a piece of red wood wherewith my tent wassupported, and that they were called Orejones and Epuremei; that thosehad slain and rooted out so many of the ancient people as there wereleaves in the wood upon all the trees, and had now made themselves lordsof all, even to that mountain foot called Curaa, saving only of twonations, the one called Iwarawaqueri and the other Cassipagotos; andthat in the last battle fought between the Epuremei and the Iwarawaquerihis eldest son was chosen to carry to the aid of the Iwarawaqueri agreat troop of the Orenoqueponi, and was there slain with all his peopleand friends, and that he had now remaining but one son; and farther toldme that those Epuremei had built a great town called Macureguarai atthe said mountain foot, at the beginning of the great plains of Guiana, which have no end; and that their houses have many rooms, one over theother, and that therein the great king of the Orejones and Epuremei keptthree thousand men to defend the borders against them, and withal dailyto invade and slay them; but that of late years, since the Christiansoffered to invade his territories and those frontiers, they were allat peace, and traded one with another, saving only the Iwarawaqueriand those other nations upon the head of the river of Caroli calledCassipagotos, which we afterwards discovered, each one holding theSpaniard for a common enemy. 

After he had answered thus far, he desired leave to depart, saying thathe had far to go, that he was old and weak, and was every day called forby death, which was also his own phrase. I desired him to rest withus that night, but I could not entreat him; but he told me that at myreturn from the country above he would again come to us, and in themeantime provide for us the best he could, of all that his countryyielded. The same night he returned to Orocotona, his own town; so ashe went that day eight-and-twenty miles, the weather being very hot, thecountry being situate between four and five degrees of the equinoctial. This Topiawari is held for the proudest and wisest of all theOrenoqueponi, and so he behaved himself towards me in all his answers, at my return, as I marvelled to find a man of that gravity and judgmentand of so good discourse, that had no help of learning nor breed. Thenext morning we also left the port, and sailed westward up to theriver, to view the famous river called Caroli, as well because itwas marvellous of itself, as also for that I understood it led tothe strongest nations of all the frontiers, that were enemies to theEpuremei, which are subjects to Inga, emperor of Guiana and Manoa. Andthat night we anchored at another island called Caiama, of some five orsix miles in length; and the next day arrived at the mouth of Caroli. When we were short of it as low or further down as the port ofMorequito, we heard the great roar and fall of the river. But when wecame to enter with our barge and wherries, thinking to have gone up someforty miles to the nations of the Cassipagotos, we were not able witha barge of eight oars to row one stone's cast in an hour; and yet theriver is as broad as the Thames at Woolwich, and we tried both sides, and the middle, and every part of the river. So as we encamped upon thebanks adjoining, and sent off our Orenoquepone which came with us fromMorequito to give knowledge to the nations upon the river of our beingthere, and that we desired to see the lords of Canuria, which dweltwithin the province upon that river, making them know that we wereenemies to the Spaniards; for it was on this river side that Morequitoslew the friar, and those nine Spaniards which came from Manoa, the cityof Inga, and took from them 14, 000 pesos of gold. So as the next daythere came down a lord or cacique, called Wanuretona, with many peoplewith him, and brought all store of provisions to entertain us, as therest had done. And as I had before made my coming known to Topiawari, sodid I acquaint this cacique therewith, and how I was sent by herMajesty for the purpose aforesaid, and gathered also what I could ofhim touching the estate of Guiana. And I found that those also of Caroliwere not only enemies to the Spaniards, but most of all to the Epuremei, which abound in gold. And by this Wanuretona I had knowledge that onthe head of this river were three mighty nations, which were seated ona great lake, from whence this river descended, and were calledCassipagotos, Eparegotos, and Arawagotos (the Purigotos and Arinagotosare still settled on the upper tributaries of the Caroni river, no suchlake as that mentioned is known to exist); and that all those eitheragainst the Spaniards or the Epuremei would join with us, and that if weentered the land over the mountains of Curaa we should satisfy ourselveswith gold and all other good things. He told us farther of a nationcalled Iwarawaqueri, before spoken of, that held daily war with theEpuremei that inhabited Macureguarai, and first civil town of Guiana, ofthe subjects of Inga, the emperor. 

Upon this river one Captain George, that I took with Berreo, told methat there was a great silver mine, and that it was near the banks ofthe said river. But by this time as well Orenoque, Caroli, as all therest of the rivers were risen four or five feet in height, so as it wasnot possible by the strength of any men, or with any boat whatsoever, to row into the river against the stream. I therefore sent Captain Thyn, Captain Greenvile, my nephew John Gilbert, my cousin Butshead Gorges, Captain Clarke, and some thirty shot more to coast the river by land, and to go to a town some twenty miles over the valley called Amnatapoi;and they found guides there to go farther towards the mountain footto another great town called Capurepana, belonging to a cacique calledHaharacoa, that was a nephew to old Topiawari, king of Aromaia, ourchiefest friend, because this town and province of Capurepana adjoinedto Macureguarai, which was a frontier town of the empire. And themeanwhile myself with Captain Gifford, Captain Caulfield, EdwardHancock, and some half-a-dozen shot marched overland to view the strangeoverfalls of the river of Caroli, which roared so far off; and also tosee the plains adjoining, and the rest of the province of Canuri. I sentalso Captain Whiddon, William Connock, and some eight shot with them, tosee if they could find any mineral stone alongst the river's side. Whenwe were come to the tops of the first hills of the plains adjoiningto the river, we beheld that wonderful breach of waters which ran downCaroli; and might from that mountain see the river how it ran in threeparts, above twenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelveoverfalls in sight, every one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury, that the rebound of water made it seem as ifit had been all covered over with a great shower of rain; and in someplaces we took it at the first for a smoke that had risen over somegreat town. For mine own part I was well persuaded from thence to havereturned, being a very ill footman; but the rest were all so desirous togo near the said strange thunder of waters, as they drew me on by littleand little, till we came into the next valley, where we might betterdiscern the same. I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more livelyprospects; hills so raised here and there over the valleys; the riverwinding into divers branches; the plains adjoining without bush orstubble, all fair green grass; the ground of hard sand, easy to marchon, either for horse or foot; the deer crossing in every path; the birdstowards the evening singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes;cranes and herons of white, crimson, and carnation, perching in theriver's side; the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind; and everystone that we stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by hiscomplexion. Your Lordship shall see of many sorts, and I hope some ofthem cannot be bettered under the sun; and yet we had no means but withour daggers and fingers to tear them out here and there, the rocks beingmost hard of that mineral spar aforesaid, which is like a flint, and isaltogether as hard or harder, and besides the veins lie a fathom ortwo deep in the rocks. But we wanted all things requisite save only ourdesires and good will to have performed more if it had pleased God. Tobe short, when both our companies returned, each of them brought alsoseveral sorts of stones that appeared very fair, but were such as theyfound loose on the ground, and were for the most part but coloured, and had not any gold fixed in them. Yet such as had no judgment orexperience kept all that glistered, and would not be persuaded but itwas rich because of the lustre; and brought of those, and of marcasitewithal, from Trinidad, and have delivered of those stones to be triedin many places, and have thereby bred an opinion that all the rest is ofthe same. Yet some of these stones I shewed afterward to a Spaniardof the Caracas, who told me that it was El Madre del Oro, that is, themother of gold, and that the mine was farther in the ground. 

But it shall be found a weak policy in me, either to betray myself ormy country with imaginations; neither am I so far in love with thatlodging, watching, care, peril, diseases, ill savours, bad fare, andmany other mischiefs that accompany these voyages, as to woo myselfagain into any of them, were I not assured that the sun covereth notso much riches in any part of the earth. Captain Whiddon, and ourchirurgeon, Nicholas Millechamp, brought me a kind of stones likesapphires; what they may prove I know not. I shewed them to some of theOrenoqueponi, and they promised to bring me to a mountain that had ofthem very large pieces growing diamond-wise; whether it be crystal ofthe mountain, Bristol diamond, or sapphire, I do not yet know, butI hope the best; sure I am that the place is as likely as those fromwhence all the rich stones are brought, and in the same height or verynear. On the left hand of this river Caroli are seated those nationswhich I called Iwarawaqueri before remembered, which are enemies to theEpuremei; and on the head of it, adjoining to the great lake Cassipa, are situated those other nations which also resist Inga, and theEpuremei, called Cassipagotos, Eparegotos, and Arawagotos. I fartherunderstood that this lake of Cassipa is so large, as it is above oneday's journey for one of their canoas, to cross, which may be some fortymiles; and that thereinto fall divers rivers, and that great store ofgrains of gold are found in the summer time when the lake falleth by thebanks, in those branches. 

There is also another goodly river beyond Caroli which is called Arui, which also runneth through the lake Cassipa, and falleth into Orenoquefarther west, making all that land between Caroli and Arui an island;which is likewise a most beautiful country. Next unto Arui there are tworivers Atoica and Caura, and on that branch which is called Caura area nation of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders; whichthough it may be thought a mere fable, yet for mine own part I amresolved it is true, because every child in the provinces of Aromaia andCanuri affirm the same. They are called Ewaipanoma; they are reportedto have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middleof their breasts, and that a long train of hair groweth backward betweentheir shoulders. The son of Topiawari, which I brought with me intoEngland, told me that they were the most mighty men of all the land, anduse bows, arrows, and clubs thrice as big as any of Guiana, or of theOrenoqueponi; and that one of the Iwarawaqueri took a prisoner of themthe year before our arrival there, and brought him into the borders ofAromaia, his father's country. And farther, when I seemed to doubt ofit, he told me that it was no wonder among them; but that they were asgreat a nation and as common as any other in all the provinces, and hadof late years slain many hundreds of his father's people, and of othernations their neighbours. But it was not my chance to hear of them tillI was come away; and if I had but spoken one word of it while I wasthere I might have brought one of them with me to put the matter out ofdoubt. Such a nation was written of by Mandeville, whose reportswere holden for fables many years; and yet since the East Indies werediscovered, we find his relations true of such things as heretofore wereheld incredible (Mandeville, or the author who assumed this name, placedhis headless men in the East Indian Archipelago, the fable is borrowedfrom older writers, Herodotus &c). Whether it be true or no, the matteris not great, neither can there be any profit in the imagination; formine own part I saw them not, but I am resolved that so many people didnot all combine or forethink to make the report. 

When I came to Cumana in the West Indies afterwards by chance I spakewith a Spaniard dwelling not far from thence, a man of great travel. And after he knew that I had been in Guiana, and so far directly westas Caroli, the first question he asked me was, whether I had seen any ofthe Ewaipanoma, which are those without heads. Who being esteemed a mosthonest man of his word, and in all things else, told me that he hadseen many of them; I may not name him, because it may be for hisdisadvantage, but he is well known to Monsieur Moucheron's son ofLondon, and to Peter Moucheron, merchant, of the Flemish ship that wasthere in trade; who also heard, what he avowed to be true, of thosepeople. 

The fourth river to the west of Caroli is Casnero: which falleth intothe Orenoque on this side of Amapaia. And that river is greater thanDanubius, or any of Europe: it riseth on the south of Guiana fromthe mountains which divide Guiana from Amazons, and I think it to benavigable many hundred miles. But we had no time, means, nor season ofthe year, to search those rivers, for the causes aforesaid, the winterbeing come upon us; although the winter and summer as touching cold andheat differ not, neither do the trees ever sensibly lose their leaves, but have always fruit either ripe or green, and most of them bothblossoms, leaves, ripe fruit, and green, at one time: but their winteronly consisteth of terrible rains, and overflowing of the rivers, withmany great storms and gusts, thunder and lightnings, of which we had ourfill ere we returned. 

On the north side, the first river that falleth into the Orenoque isCari. Beyond it, on the same side is the river of Limo. Between thesetwo is a great nation of Cannibals, and their chief town beareth thename of the river, and is called Acamacari. At this town is a continualmarket of women for three or four hatchets apiece; they are bought bythe Arwacas, and by them sold into the West Indies. To the west of Limois the river Pao, beyond it Caturi, beyond that Voari, and Capuri (theApure river), which falleth out of the great river of Meta, by whichBerreo descended from Nuevo Reyno de Granada. To the westward of Capuriis the province of Amapaia, where Berreo wintered and had so many of hispeople poisoned with the tawny water of the marshes of the Anebas. AboveAmapaia, toward Nuevo Reyno, fall in Meto, Pato and Cassanar. To thewest of those, towards the provinces of the Ashaguas and Catetios, arethe rivers of Beta, Dawney, and Ubarro; and toward the frontier of Peruare the provinces of Thomebamba, and Caxamalca. Adjoining to Quito inthe north side of Peru are the rivers of Guiacar and Goauar; and on theother side of the said mountains the river of Papamene which descendethinto Maranon or Amazons, passing through the province Motilones, where Don Pedro de Orsua, who was slain by the traitor Aguirre beforerehearsed, built his brigandines, when he sought Guiana by the way ofAmazons. 

Between Dawney and Beta lieth a famous island in Orenoque (now calledBaraquan, for above Meta it is not known by the name of Orenoque) whichis called Athule (cataract of Ature); beyond which ships of burdencannot pass by reason of a most forcible overfall, and current of water;but in the eddy all smaller vessels may be drawn even to Peru itself. But to speak of more of these rivers without the description were buttedious, and therefore I will leave the rest to the description. Thisriver of Orenoque is navigable for ships little less than 1, 000 miles, and for lesser vessels near 2, 000. By it, as aforesaid, Peru, NuevoReyno and Popayan may be invaded: it also leadeth to the great empire ofInga, and to the provinces of Amapaia and Anebas, which abound in gold. His branches of Casnero, Manta, Caura descend from the middle land andvalley which lieth between the easter province of Peru and Guiana; andit falls into the sea between Maranon and Trinidad in two degrees anda half. All of which your honours shall better perceive in the generaldescription of Guiana, Peru, Nuevo Reyno, the kingdom of Popayan, andRodas, with the province of Venezuela, to the bay of Uraba, behindCartagena, westward, and to Amazons southward. While we lay at anchor onthe coast of Canuri, and had taken knowledge of all the nations uponthe head and branches of this river, and had found out so many severalpeople, which were enemies to the Epuremei and the new conquerors, Ithought it time lost to linger any longer in that place, especially forthat the fury of Orenoque began daily to threaten us with dangers in ourreturn. For no half day passed but the river began to rage and overflowvery fearfully, and the rains came down in terrible showers, and gustsin great abundance; and withal our men began to cry out for want ofshift, for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that whichhe ware on his back, and that was throughly washed on his body for themost part ten times in one day; and we had now been well-near a monthevery day passing to the westward farther and farther from our ships. We therefore turned towards the east, and spent the rest of the timein discovering the river towards the sea, which we had not viewed, andwhich was most material. 

The next day following we left the mouth of Caroli, and arrived again atthe port of Morequito where we were before; for passing down the streamwe went without labour, and against the wind, little less than a hundredmiles a day. As soon as I came to anchor, I sent away one for oldTopiawari, with whom I much desired to have further conference, andalso to deal with him for some one of his country to bring with us intoEngland, as well to learn the language, as to confer withal by the way, the time being now spent of any longer stay there. Within three hoursafter my messenger came to him, he arrived also, and with him such arabble of all sorts of people, and every one loaden with somewhat, as ifit had been a great market or fair in England; and our hungry companiesclustered thick and threefold among their baskets, every one laying handon what he liked. After he had rested awhile in my tent, I shut out allbut ourselves and my interpreter, and told him that I knew that both theEpuremei and the Spaniards were enemies to him, his country and nations:that the one had conquered Guiana already, and the other sought toregain the same from them both; and therefore I desired him to instructme what he could, both of the passage into the golden parts of Guiana, and to the civil towns and apparelled people of Inga. He gave me ananswer to this effect: first, that he could not perceive that I meantto go onward towards the city of Manoa, for neither the time of the yearserved, neither could he perceive any sufficient numbers for such anenterprise. And if I did, I was sure with all my company to be buriedthere, for the emperor was of that strength, as that many times so manymen more were too few. Besides, he gave me this good counsel and advisedme to hold it in mind (as for himself, he knew he could not live tillmy return), that I should not offer by any means hereafter to invade thestrong parts of Guiana without the help of all those nations which werealso their enemies; for that it was impossible without those, either tobe conducted, to be victualled, or to have aught carried with us, ourpeople not being able to endure the march in so great heat and travail, unless the borderers gave them help, to cart with them both their meatand furniture. For he remembered that in the plains of Macureguaraithree hundred Spaniards were overthrown, who were tired out, and hadnone of the borderers to their friends; but meeting their enemies asthey passed the frontier, were environed on all sides, and the peoplesetting the long dry grass on fire, smothered them, so as they had nobreath to fight, nor could discern their enemies for the great smoke. Hetold me further that four days' journey from his town was Macureguarai, and that those were the next and nearest of the subjects of Inga, and ofthe Epuremei, and the first town of apparelled and rich people; and thatall those plates of gold which were scattered among the borderers andcarried to other nations far and near, came from the said Macureguaraiand were there made, but that those of the land within were far finer, and were fashioned after the images of men, beasts, birds, and fishes. Iasked him whether he thought that those companies that I had there withme were sufficient to take that town or no; he told me that he thoughtthey were. I then asked him whether he would assist me with guides, andsome companies of his people to join with us; he answered that he wouldgo himself with all the borderers, if the rivers did remain fordable, upon this condition, that I would leave with him till my return againfifty soldiers, which he undertook to victual. I answered that I had notabove fifty good men in all there; the rest were labourers and rowers, and that I had no provision to leave with them of powder, shot, apparel, or aught else, and that without those things necessary for theirdefence, they should be in danger of the Spaniards in my absence, whoI knew would use the same measures towards mine that I offered themat Trinidad. And although upon the motion Captain Caulfield, CaptainGreenvile, my nephew John Gilbert and divers others were desirous tostay, yet I was resolved that they must needs have perished. For Berreoexpected daily a supply out of Spain, and looked also hourly for his sonto come down from Nuevo Reyno de Granada, with many horse and foot, andhad also in Valencia, in the Caracas, two hundred horse ready to march;and I could not have spared above forty, and had not any store at all ofpowder, lead, or match to have left with them, nor any other provision, either spade, pickaxe, or aught else to have fortified withal. 

When I had given him reason that I could not at this time leave him sucha company, he then desired me to forbear him and his country for thattime; for he assured me that I should be no sooner three days from thecoast but those Epuremei would invade him, and destroy all the remain ofhis people and friends, if he should any way either guide us or assistus against them. He further alleged that the Spaniards sought his death;and as they had already murdered his nephew Morequito, lord of thatprovince, so they had him seventeen days in a chain before he was kingof the country, and led him like a dog from place to place until he hadpaid an hundred plates of gold and divers chains of spleen-stones forhis ransom. And now, since he became owner of that province, that theyhad many times laid wait to take him, and that they would be now morevehement when they should understand of his conference with the English. _And because_, said he, _they would the better displant me, if theycannot lay hands on me, they have gotten a nephew of mine calledEparacano, whom they have christened Don Juan, and his son Don Pedro, whom they have also apparelled and armed, by whom they seek to make aparty against me in mine own country. He also hath taken to wife oneLouiana, of a strong family, which are borderers and neighbours; andmyself now being old and in the hands of death am not able to travelnor to shift as when I was of younger years. _ He therefore prayed us todefer it till the next year, when he would undertake to draw in all theborderers to serve us, and then, also, it would be more seasonable totravel; for at this time of the year we should not be able to pass anyriver, the waters were and would be so grown ere our return. 

He farther told me that I could not desire so much to invadeMacureguarai and the rest of Guiana but that the borderers would be morevehement than I. For he yielded for a chief cause that in the wars withthe Epuremei they were spoiled of their women, and that their wives anddaughters were taken from them; so as for their own parts they desirednothing of the gold or treasure for their labours, but only to recoverwomen from the Epuremei. For he farther complained very sadly, as it hadbeen a matter of great consequence, that whereas they were wont to haveten or twelve wives, they were now enforced to content themselveswith three or four, and that the lords of the Epuremei had fifty or ahundred. And in truth they war more for women than either for gold ordominion. For the lords of countries desire many children of their ownbodies to increase their races and kindreds, for in those consist theirgreatest trust and strength. Divers of his followers afterwards desiredme to make haste again, that they might sack the Epuremei, and I askedthem, of what? They answered, Of their women for us, and their gold foryou. For the hope of those many of women they more desire the war thaneither for gold or for the recovery of their ancient territories. Forwhat between the subjects of Inga and the Spaniards, those frontiers aregrown thin of people; and also great numbers are fled to other nationsfarther off for fear of the Spaniards. 

After I received this answer of the old man, we fell into considerationwhether it had been of better advice to have entered Macureguarai, andto have begun a war upon Inga at this time, yea, or no, if the time ofthe year and all things else had sorted. For mine own part, as we werenot able to march it for the rivers, neither had any such strength aswas requisite, and durst not abide the coming of the winter, or totarry any longer from our ships, I thought it were evil counsel to haveattempted it at that time, although the desire for gold will answer manyobjections. But it would have been, in mine opinion, an utter overthrowto the enterprise, if the same should be hereafter by her Majestyattempted. For then, whereas now they have heard we were enemies to theSpaniards and were sent by her Majesty to relieve them, they would asgood cheap have joined with the Spaniards at our return, as to haveyielded unto us, when they had proved that we came both for one errand, and that both sought but to sack and spoil them. But as yet our desiregold, or our purpose of invasion, is not known to them of the empire. And it is likely that if her Majesty undertake the enterprise they willrather submit themselves to her obedience than to the Spaniards, ofwhose cruelty both themselves and the borderers have already tasted. Andtherefore, till I had known her Majesty's pleasure, I would rather havelost the sack of one or two towns, although they might have been veryprofitable, than to have defaced or endangered the future hope of somany millions, and the great good and rich trade which England may bepossessed of thereby. I am assured now that they will all die, even tothe last man, against the Spaniards in hope of our succour and return. Whereas, otherwise, if I had either laid hands on the borderers orransomed the lords, as Berreo did, or invaded the subjects of Inga, Iknow all had been lost for hereafter. 

After that I had resolved Topiawari, lord of Aromaia, that I could notat this time leave with him the companies he desired, and that I wascontented to forbear the enterprise against the Epuremei till the nextyear, he freely gave me his only son to take with me into England; andhoped that though he himself had but a short time to live, yet that byour means his son should be established after his death. And I left withhim one Francis Sparrow, a servant of Captain Gifford, who was desirousto tarry, and could describe a country with his pen, and a boy of minecalled Hugh Goodwin, to learn the language. I after asked the manner howthe Epuremei wrought those plates of gold, and how they could melt itout of the stone. He told me that the most of the gold which they madein plates and images was not severed from the stone, but that on thelake of Manoa, and in a multitude of other rivers, they gathered it ingrains of perfect gold and in pieces as big as small stones, and theyput it to a part of copper, otherwise they could not work it; and thatthey used a great earthen pot with holes round about it, and when theyhad mingled the gold and copper together they fastened canes to theholes, and so with the breath of men they increased the fire till themetal ran, and then they cast it into moulds of stone and clay, and somake those plates and images. I have sent your honours of two sorts suchas I could by chance recover, more to shew the manner of them thanfor the value. For I did not in any sort make my desire of gold known, because I had neither time nor power to have a great quantity. I gaveamong them many more pieces of gold than I received, of the new money oftwenty shillings with her Majesty's picture, to wear, with promise thatthey would become her servants thenceforth. 

I have also sent your honours of the ore, whereof I know some is asrich as the earth yieldeth any, of which I know there is sufficient, ifnothing else were to be hoped for. But besides that we were not able totarry and search the hills, so we had neither pioneers, bars, sledges, nor wedges of iron to break the ground, without which there is noworking in mines. But we saw all the hills with stones of the colourof gold and silver, and we tried them to be no marcasite, and thereforesuch as the Spaniards call El madre del oro or "the mother of gold, "which is an undoubted assurance of the general abundance; and myself sawthe outside of many mines of the spar, which I know to be the same thatall covet in this world, and of those more than I will speak of. 

Having learned what I could in Canuri and Aromaia, and received afaithful promise of the principallest of those provinces to becomeservants to her Majesty, and to resist the Spaniards if they made anyattempt in our absence, and that they would draw in the nations aboutthe lake of Cassipa and those of Iwarawaqueri, I then parted from oldTopiawari, and received his son for a pledge between us, and left withhim two of ours as aforesaid. To Francis Sparrow I gave instructionsto travel to Macureguarai with such merchandises as I left with them, thereby to learn the place, and if it were possible, to go on to thegreat city of Manoa. Which being done, we weighed anchor and coasted theriver on Guiana side, because we came upon the north side, by the lawnsof the Saima and Wikiri. 

There came with us from Aromaia a cacique called Putijma, that commandedthe province of Warapana, which Putijma slew the nine Spaniards uponCaroli before spoken of; who desired us to rest in the port of hiscountry, promising to bring us unto a mountain adjoining to his townthat had stones of the colour of gold, which he performed. And after wehad rested there one night I went myself in the morning with most of thegentlemen of my company over-land towards the said mountain, marchingby a river's side called Mana, leaving on the right hand a towncalled Tuteritona, standing in the province of Tarracoa, of whichWariaaremagoto is principal. Beyond it lieth another town towards thesouth, in the valley of Amariocapana, which beareth the name of the saidvalley; whose plains stretch themselves some sixty miles in length, eastand west, as fair ground and as beautiful fields as any man hath everseen, with divers copses scattered here and there by the river's side, and all as full of deer as any forest or park in England, and inevery lake and river the like abundance of fish and fowl; of whichIrraparragota is lord. 

From the river of Mana we crossed another river in the said beautifulvalley called Oiana, and rested ourselves by a clear lake which lay inthe middle of the said Oiana; and one of our guides kindling us firewith two sticks, we stayed awhile to dry our shirts, which with the heathung very wet and heavy on our shoulders. Afterwards we sought the fordto pass over towards the mountain called Iconuri, where Putijma foretoldus of the mine. In this lake we saw one of the great fishes, as big asa wine pipe, which they call manati, being most excellent and wholesomemeat. But after I perceived that to pass the said river would requirehalf-a-day's march more, I was not able myself to endure it, andtherefore I sent Captain Keymis with six shot to go on, and gave himorder not to return to the port of Putijma, which is called Chiparepare, but to take leisure, and to march down the said valley as far as ariver called Cumaca, where I promised to meet him again, Putijma himselfpromising also to be his guide. And as they marched, they left thetowns of Emperapana and Capurepana on the right hand, and marched fromPutijma's house, down the said valley of Amariocapana; and we returningthe same day to the river's side, saw by the way many rocks like untogold ore, and on the left hand a round mountain which consisted ofmineral stone. 

From hence we rowed down the stream, coasting the province of Parino. As for the branches of rivers which I overpass in this discourse, thoseshall be better expressed in the description, with the mountains ofAio, Ara, and the rest, which are situate in the provinces of Parino andCarricurrina. When we were come as far down as the land called Ariacoa, where Orenoque divideth itself into three great branches, each of thembeing most goodly rivers, I sent away Captain Henry Thyn, and CaptainGreenvile with the galley, the nearest way, and took with me CaptainGifford, Captain Caulfield, Edward Porter, and Captain Eynos with mineown barge and the two wherries, and went down that branch of Orenoquewhich is called Cararoopana, which leadeth towards Emeria, the provinceof Carapana, and towards the east sea, as well to find out CaptainKeymis, whom I had sent overland, as also to acquaint myselfwith Carapana, who is one of the greatest of all the lords of theOrenoqueponi. And when I came to the river of Cumaca, to which Putijmapromised to conduct Captain Keymis, I left Captain Eynos and MasterPorter in the said river to expect his coming, and the rest of us roweddown the stream towards Emeria. 

In this branch called Cararoopana were also many goodly islands, someof six miles long, some of ten, and some of twenty. When it grew towardssunset, we entered a branch of a river that fell into Orenoque, calledWinicapora; where I was informed of the mountain of crystal, to which intruth for the length of the way, and the evil season of the year, I wasnot able to march, nor abide any longer upon the journey. We saw it afaroff; and it appeared like a white church-tower of an exceeding height. There falleth over it a mighty river which toucheth no part of the sideof the mountain, but rusheth over the top of it, and falleth to theground with so terrible a noise and clamour, as if a thousand greatbells were knocked one against another. I think there is not in theworld so strange an overfall, nor so wonderful to behold. Berreo told methat there were diamonds and other precious stones on it, and that theyshined very far off; but what it hath I know not, neither durst he orany of his men ascend to the top of the said mountain, those peopleadjoining being his enemies, as they were, and the way to it soimpassable. 

Upon this river of Winicapora we rested a while, and from thence marchedinto the country to a town called after the name of the river, whereofthe captain was one Timitwara, who also offered to conduct me to the topof the said mountain called Wacarima. But when we came in first to thehouse of the said Timitwara, being upon one of their said feast days, we found them all as drunk as beggars, and the pots walking from one toanother without rest. We that were weary and hot with marching were gladof the plenty, though a small quantity satisfied us, their drink beingvery strong and heady, and so rested ourselves awhile. After we had fed, we drew ourselves back to our boats upon the river, and there came to usall the lords of the country, with all such kind of victual as the placeyielded, and with their delicate wine of pinas, and with abundanceof hens and other provisions, and of those stones which we callspleen-stones. We understood by these chieftains of Winicapora thattheir lord, Carapana, was departed from Emeria, which was now in sight, and that he was fled to Cairamo, adjoining to the mountains of Guiana, over the valley called Amariocapana, being persuaded by those tenSpaniards which lay at his house that we would destroy him and hiscountry. But after these caciques of Winicapora and Saporatona hisfollowers perceived our purpose, and saw that we came as enemies to theSpaniards only, and had not so much as harmed any of those nations, no, though we found them to be of the Spaniards' own servants, they assuredus that Carapana would be as ready to serve us as any of the lords ofthe provinces which we had passed; and that he durst do no other tillthis day but entertain the Spaniards, his country lying so directly intheir way, and next of all other to any entrance that should be made inGuiana on that side. And they further assured us, that it was not forfear of our coming that he was removed, but to be acquitted of theSpaniards or any other that should come hereafter. For the province ofCairoma is situate at the mountain foot, which divideth the plains ofGuiana from the countries of the Orenoqueponi; by means whereof ifany should come in our absence into his towns, he would slip overthe mountains into the plains of Guiana among the Epuremei, where theSpaniards durst not follow him without great force. But in mine opinion, or rather I assure myself, that Carapana being a notable wise andsubtle fellow, a man of one hundred years of age and therefore of greatexperience, is removed to look on, and if he find that we return stronghe will be ours; if not, he will excuse his departure to the Spaniards, and say it was for fear of our coming. 

We therefore thought it bootless to row so far down the stream, orto seek any farther of this old fox; and therefore from the river ofWaricapana, which lieth at the entrance of Emeria, we returned again, and left to the eastward those four rivers which fall from the mountainsof Emeria into Orenoque, which are Waracayari, Coirama, Akaniri, and Iparoma. Below those four are also these branches and mouths ofOrenoque, which fall into the east sea, whereof the first is Araturi, the next Amacura, the third Barima, the fourth Wana, the fifth Morooca, the sixth Paroma, the last Wijmi. Beyond them there fall out of the landbetween Orenoque and Amazons fourteen rivers, which I forbear to name, inhabited by the Arwacas and Cannibals. 

It is now time to return towards the north, and we found it a wearisomeway back from the borders of Emeria, to recover up again to the head ofthe river Carerupana, by which we descended, and where we partedfrom the galley, which I directed to take the next way to the port ofToparimaca, by which we entered first. 

All the night it was stormy and dark, and full of thunder and greatshowers, so as we were driven to keep close by the banks in our smallboats, being all heartily afraid both of the billow and terrible currentof the river. By the next morning we recovered the mouth of the riverof Cumaca, where we left Captain Eynos and Edward Porter to attend thecoming of Captain Keymis overland; but when we entered the same, theyhad heard no news of his arrival, which bred in us a great doubt whatmight become of him. I rowed up a league or two farther into the river, shooting off pieces all the way, that he might know of our being there;and the next morning we heard them answer us also with a piece. We tookthem aboard us, and took our leave of Putijma, their guide, who of allothers most lamented our departure, and offered to send his son with usinto England, if we could have stayed till he had sent back to histown. But our hearts were cold to behold the great rage and increase ofOrenoque, and therefore departed, and turned toward the west, till wehad recovered the parting of the three branches aforesaid, that we mightput down the stream after the galley. 

The next day we landed on the island of Assapano, which divideth theriver from that branch by which we sent down to Emeria, and therefeasted ourselves with that beast which is called armadillo, presentedunto us before at Winicapora. And the day following, we recoveredthe galley at anchor at the port of Toparimaca, and the same eveningdeparted with very foul weather, and terrible thunder and showers, forthe winter was come on very far. The best was, we went no less than 100miles a day down the river; but by the way we entered it was impossibleto return, for that the river of Amana, being in the bottom of the bayof Guanipa, cannot be sailed back by any means, both the breeze andcurrent of the sea were so forcible. And therefore we followed a branchof Orenoque called Capuri, which entered into the sea eastward of ourships, to the end we might bear with them before the wind; and it wasnot without need, for we had by that way as much to cross of the mainsea, after we came to the river's mouth, as between Gravelin and Dover, in such boats as your honour hath heard. 

To speak of what passed homeward were tedious, either to describe orname any of the rivers, islands, or villages of the Tivitivas, whichdwell on trees; we will leave all those to the general map. And to beshort, when we were arrived at the sea-side, then grew our greatestdoubt, and the bitterest of all our journey forepassed; for I protestbefore God, that we were in a most desperate estate. For the same nightwhich we anchored in the mouth of the river of Capuri, where it fallethinto the sea, there arose a mighty storm, and the river's mouth was atleast a league broad, so as we ran before night close under the landwith our small boats, and brought the galley as near as we could. Butshe had as much ado to live as could be, and there wanted little of hersinking, and all those in her; for mine own part, I confess I was verydoubtful which way to take, either to go over in the pestered (crowded)galley, there being but six foot water over the sands for two leaguestogether, and that also in the channel, and she drew five; or toadventure in so great a billow, and in so doubtful weather, to cross theseas in my barge. The longer we tarried the worse it was, and thereforeI took Captain Gifford, Captain Caulfield, and my cousin Greenvile intomy barge; and after it cleared up about midnight we put ourselvesto God's keeping, and thrust out into the sea, leaving the galley atanchor, who durst not adventure but by daylight. And so, being all verysober and melancholy, one faintly cheering another to shew courage, itpleased God that the next day about nine o'clock, we descried the islandof Trinidad; and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shoretill we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than whichthere was never to us a more joyful sight. 

Now that it hath pleased God to send us safe to our ships, it is time toleave Guiana to the sun, whom they worship, and steer away towards thenorth. I will, therefore, in a few words finish the discovery thereof. Of the several nations which we found upon this discovery I will onceagain make repetition, and how they are affected. At our first entranceinto Amana, which is one of the outlets of Orenoque, we left on theright hand of us in the bottom of the bay, lying directly againstTrinidad, a nation of inhuman Cannibals, which inhabit the rivers ofGuanipa and Berbeese. In the same bay there is also a third river, whichis called Areo, which riseth on Paria side towards Cumana, and thatriver is inhabited with the Wikiri, whose chief town upon the said riveris Sayma. In this bay there are no more rivers but these three beforerehearsed and the four branches of Amana, all which in the winter thrustso great abundance of water into the sea, as the same is taken up freshtwo or three leagues from the land. In the passages towards Guiana, thatis, in all those lands which the eight branches of Orenoque fashion intoislands, there are but one sort of people, called Tivitivas, but of twocastes, as they term them, the one called Ciawani, the other Waraweeti, and those war one with another. 

On the hithermost part of Orenoque, as at Toparimaca and Winicapora, those are of a nation called Nepoios, and are the followers of Carapana, lord of Emeria. Between Winicapora and the port of Morequito, whichstandeth in Aromaia, and all those in the valley of Amariocapana arecalled Orenoqueponi, and did obey Morequito and are now followers ofTopiawari. Upon the river of Caroli are the Canuri, which are governedby a woman who is inheritrix of that province; who came far off to seeour nation, and asked me divers questions of her Majesty, being muchdelighted with the discourse of her Majesty's greatness, and wonderingat such reports as we truly made of her Highness' many virtues. Andupon the head of Caroli and on the lake of Cassipa are the threestrong nations of the Cassipagotos. Right south into the land are theCapurepani and Emparepani, and beyond those, adjoining to Macureguarai, the first city of Inga, are the Iwarawakeri. All these are professedenemies to the Spaniards, and to the rich Epuremei also. To the west ofCaroli are divers nations of Cannibals and of those Ewaipanoma withoutheads. Directly west are the Amapaias and Anebas, which are alsomarvellous rich in gold. The rest towards Peru we will omit. On thenorth of Orenoque, between it and the West Indies, are the Wikiri, Saymi, and the rest before spoken of, all mortal enemies to theSpaniards. On the south side of the main mouth of Orenoque are theArwacas; and beyond them, the Cannibals; and to the south of them, theAmazons. 

To make mention of the several beasts, birds, fishes, fruits, flowers, gums, sweet woods, and of their several religions and customs, would forthe first require as many volumes as those of Gesnerus, and for thenext another bundle of Decades. The religion of the Epuremei is the samewhich the Ingas, emperors of Peru, used, which may be read in Cieza andother Spanish stories; how they believe the immortality of the soul, worship the sun, and bury with them alive their best beloved wives andtreasure, as they likewise do in Pegu in the East Indies, and otherplaces. The Orenoqueponi bury not their wives with them, but theirjewels, hoping to enjoy them again. The Arwacas dry the bones of theirlords, and their wives and friends drink them in powder. In the gravesof the Peruvians the Spaniards found their greatest abundance oftreasure. The like, also, is to be found among these people in everyprovince. They have all many wives, and the lords five-fold to thecommon sort. Their wives never eat with their husbands, nor amongthe men, but serve their husbands at meals and afterwards feed bythemselves. Those that are past their younger years make all their breadand drink, and work their cotton-beds, and do all else of service andlabour; for the men do nothing but hunt, fish, play, and drink, whenthey are out of the wars. 

I will enter no further into discourse of their manners, laws, andcustoms. And because I have not myself seen the cities of Inga I cannotavow on my credit what I have heard, although it be very likely that theemperor Inga hath built and erected as magnificent palaces in Guiana ashis ancestors did in Peru; which were for their riches and rareness mostmarvellous, and exceeding all in Europe, and, I think, of the world, China excepted, which also the Spaniards, which I had, assured me to betrue, as also the nations of the borderers, who, being but savages tothose of the inland, do cause much treasure to be buried with them. For I was informed of one of the caciques of the valley of Amariocapanawhich had buried with him a little before our arrival a chair of goldmost curiously wrought, which was made either in Macureguarai adjoiningor in Manoa. But if we should have grieved them in their religion atthe first, before they had been taught better, and have digged up theirgraves, we had lost them all. And therefore I held my first resolution, that her Majesty should either accept or refuse the enterprise ereanything should be done that might in any sort hinder the same. And ifPeru had so many heaps of gold, whereof those Ingas were princes, andthat they delighted so much therein, no doubt but this which now livethand reigneth in Manoa hath the same humour, and, I am assured, hathmore abundance of gold within his territory than all Peru and the WestIndies. 

For the rest, which myself have seen, I will promise these things thatfollow, which I know to be true. Those that are desirous to discover andto see many nations may be satisfied within this river, which bringethforth so many arms and branches leading to several countries andprovinces, above 2, 000 miles east and west and 800 miles southand north, and of these the most either rich in gold or in othermerchandises. The common soldier shall here fight for gold, and payhimself, instead of pence, with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereashe breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and penury. Thosecommanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance shall findthere more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with goldenimages, more sepulchres filled with treasure, than either Cortes foundin Mexico or Pizarro in Peru. And the shining glory of this conquestwill eclipse all those so far-extended beams of the Spanish nation. There is no country which yieldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants, either for those common delights of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, and the rest, than Guiana doth; it hath so many plains, clear rivers, and abundance of pheasants, partridges, quails, rails, cranes, herons, and all other fowl; deer of all sorts, porks, hares, lions, tigers, leopards, and divers other sorts of beasts, either for chase or food. Ithath a kind of beast called cama or anta (tapir), as big as an Englishbeef, and in great plenty. To speak of the several sorts of every kind Ifear would be troublesome to the reader, and therefore I will omit them, and conclude that both for health, good air, pleasure, and riches, I amresolved it cannot be equalled by any region either in the east or west. Moreover the country is so healthful, as of an hundred persons andmore, which lay without shift most sluttishly, and were every day almostmelted with heat in rowing and marching, and suddenly wet again withgreat showers, and did eat of all sorts of corrupt fruits, and mademeals of fresh fish without seasoning, of tortugas, of lagartos orcrocodiles, and of all sorts good and bad, without either order ormeasure, and besides lodged in the open air every night, we lost not anyone, nor had one ill-disposed to my knowledge; nor found any calenturaor other of those pestilent diseases which dwell in all hot regions, andso near the equinoctial line. 

Where there is store of gold it is in effect needless to remember othercommodities for trade. But it hath, towards the south part of the river, great quantities of brazil-wood, and divers berries that dye a mostperfect crimson and carnation; and for painting, all France, Italy, orthe East Indies yield none such. For the more the skin is washed, thefairer the colour appeareth, and with which even those brown andtawny women spot themselves and colour their cheeks. All places yieldabundance of cotton, of silk, of balsamum, and of those kinds mostexcellent and never known in Europe, of all sorts of gums, of Indianpepper; and what else the countries may afford within the land we knownot, neither had we time to abide the trial and search. The soil besidesis so excellent and so full of rivers, as it will carry sugar, ginger, and all those other commodities which the West Indies have. 

The navigation is short, for it may be sailed with an ordinary windin six weeks, and in the like time back again; and by the way neitherlee-shore, enemies' coast, rocks, nor sands. All which in the voyages tothe West Indies and all other places we are subject unto; as the channelof Bahama, coming from the West Indies, cannot well be passed in thewinter, and when it is at the best, it is a perilous and a fearfulplace; the rest of the Indies for calms and diseases very troublesome, and the sea about the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder, lightning, andstorms. 

This very year (1595) there were seventeen sail of Spanish ships lostin the channel of Bahama, and the great Philip, like to have sunk at theBermudas, was put back to St. Juan de Puerto Rico; and so it falleth outin that navigation every year for the most part. Which in this voyageare not to be feared; for the time of year to leave England is bestin July, and the summer in Guiana is in October, November, December, January, February, and March, and then the ships may depart thence inApril, and so return again into England in June. So as they shall neverbe subject to winter weather, either coming, going, or staying there:which, for my part, I take to be one of the greatest comforts andencouragements that can be thought on, having, as I have done, tastedin this voyage by the West Indies so many calms, so much heat, suchoutrageous gusts, such weather, and contrary winds. 

To conclude, Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, neversacked, turned, nor wrought; the face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the virtue and salt of the soil spent by manurance. The graves havenot been opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledges, nor theirimages pulled down out of their temples. It hath never been entered byany army of strength, and never conquered or possessed by any Christianprince. It is besides so defensible, that if two forts be builded inone of the provinces which I have seen, the flood setteth in so near thebank, where the channel also lieth, that no ship can pass up but withina pike's length of the artillery, first of the one, and afterwards ofthe other. Which two forts will be a sufficient guard both to the empireof Inga, and to an hundred other several kingdoms, lying within the saidriver, even to the city of Quito in Peru. 

There is therefore great difference between the easiness of the conquestof Guiana, and the defence of it being conquered, and the West or EastIndies. Guiana hath but one entrance by the sea, if it hath that, forany vessels of burden. So as whosoever shall first possess it, it shallbe found unaccessible for any enemy, except he come in wherries, barges, or canoas, or else in flat-bottomed boats; and if he do offer to enterit in that manner, the woods are so thick 200 miles together upon therivers of such entrance, as a mouse cannot sit in a boat unhit fromthe bank. By land it is more impossible to approach; for it hath thestrongest situation of any region under the sun, and it is so environedwith impassable mountains on every side, as it is impossible to victualany company in the passage. Which hath been well proved by the Spanishnation, who since the conquest of Peru have never left five years freefrom attempting this empire, or discovering some way into it; and yetof three-and-twenty several gentlemen, knights, and noblemen, there wasnever any that knew which way to lead an army by land, or to conductships by sea, anything near the said country. Orellana, of whom theriver of Amazons taketh name, was the first, and Don Antonio de Berreo, whom we displanted, the last: and I doubt much whether he himself orany of his yet know the best way into the said empire. It can thereforehardly be regained, if any strength be formerly set down, but in oneor two places, and but two or three crumsters (Dutch, Kromsteven orKromster, a vessel with a bent prow) or galleys built and furnished uponthe river within. The West Indies have many ports, watering places, and landings; and nearer than 300 miles to Guiana, no man can harbour aship, except he know one only place, which is not learned in haste, and which I will undertake there is not any one of my companies thatknoweth, whosoever hearkened most after it. 

Besides, by keeping one good fort, or building one town of strength, thewhole empire is guarded; and whatsoever companies shall be afterwardsplanted within the land, although in twenty several provinces, thoseshall be able all to reunite themselves upon any occasion either by theway of one river, or be able to march by land without either wood, bog, or mountain. Whereas in the West Indies there are few towns or provincesthat can succour or relieve one the other by land or sea. By land thecountries are either desert, mountainous, or strong enemies. By sea, ifany man invade to the eastward, those to the west cannot in many monthsturn against the breeze and eastern wind. Besides, the Spaniards aretherein so dispersed as they are nowhere strong, but in Nueva Espanaonly; the sharp mountains, the thorns, and poisoned prickles, the sandyand deep ways in the valleys, the smothering heat and air, and want ofwater in other places are their only and best defence; which, becausethose nations that invade them are not victualled or provided to stay, neither have any place to friend adjoining, do serve them instead ofgood arms and great multitudes. 

The West Indies were first offered her Majesty's grandfather byColumbus, a stranger, in whom there might be doubt of deceit; andbesides it was then thought incredible that there were such and so manylands and regions never written of before. This Empire is made known toher Majesty by her own vassal, and by him that oweth to her more dutythan an ordinary subject; so that it shall ill sort with the many gracesand benefits which I have received to abuse her Highness, either withfables or imaginations. The country is already discovered, many nationswon to her Majesty's love and obedience, and those Spaniards which havelatest and longest laboured about the conquest, beaten out, discouraged, and disgraced, which among these nations were thought invincible. HerMajesty may in this enterprise employ all those soldiers and gentlementhat are younger brethren, and all captains and chieftains that wantemployment, and the charge will be only the first setting out invictualling and arming them; for after the first or second year I doubtnot but to see in London a Contractation-House (the whole trade ofSpanish America passed through the Casa de Contratacion at Seville)of more receipt for Guiana than there is now in Seville for the WestIndies. 

And I am resolved that if there were but a small army afoot in Guiana, marching towards Manoa, the chief city of Inga, he would yield to herMajesty by composition so many hundred thousand pounds yearly as shouldboth defend all enemies abroad, and defray all expenses at home; andthat he would besides pay a garrison of three or four thousand soldiersvery royally to defend him against other nations. For he cannot butknow how his predecessors, yea, how his own great uncles, Guascar andAtabalipa, sons to Guiana-Capac, emperor of Peru, were, while theycontended for the empire, beaten out by the Spaniards, and that both oflate years and ever since the said conquest, the Spaniards have soughtthe passages and entry of his country; and of their cruelties used tothe borderers he cannot be ignorant. In which respects no doubt but hewill be brought to tribute with great gladness; if not, he hath neithershot nor iron weapon in all his empire, and therefore may easily beconquered. 

And I further remember that Berreo confessed to me and others, which Iprotest before the Majesty of God to be true, that there was found amongthe prophecies in Peru, at such time as the empire was reduced to theSpanish obedience, in their chiefest temples, amongst divers otherswhich foreshadowed the loss of the said empire, that from Inglatierrathose Ingas should be again in time to come restored, and delivered fromthe servitude of the said conquerors. And I hope, as we with these fewhands have displanted the first garrison, and driven them out of thesaid country, so her Majesty will give order for the rest, and eitherdefend it, and hold it as tributary, or conquer and keep it as empressof the same. For whatsoever prince shall possess it, shall be greatest;and if the king of Spain enjoy it, he will become unresistible. HerMajesty hereby shall confirm and strengthen the opinions of all nationsas touching her great and princely actions. And where the south borderof Guiana reacheth to the dominion and empire of the Amazons, thosewomen shall hereby hear the name of a virgin, which is not only able todefend her own territories and her neighbours, but also to invade andconquer so great empires and so far removed. 

To speak more at this time I fear would be but troublesome: I trust inGod, this being true, will suffice, and that he which is King of allKings, and Lord of Lords, will put it into her heart which is Lady ofLadies to possess it. If not, I will judge those men worthy to be kingsthereof, that by her grace and leave will undertake it of themselves.