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 departed

England, and the Sunday following had sight of the north cape of Spain,

the wind for the most part continuing prosperous; we passed in sight of

the Burlings, and the Rock, and so onwards for the Canaries, and fell

with Fuerteventura the 17. of the same month, where we spent two or

three days, and relieved our companies with some fresh meat. From thence

we coasted by the Grand Canaria, and so to Teneriffe, and stayed there

for the Lion's Whelp, your Lordship's ship, and for Captain Amyas

Preston and the rest. But when after seven or eight days we found them

not, we departed and directed our course for Trinidad, with mine own

ship, and a small barque of Captain Cross's only; for we had before lost

sight of a small galego on the coast of Spain, which came with us from

Plymouth. We arrived at Trinidad the 22. of March, casting anchor

at Point Curiapan, which the Spaniards call Punta de Gallo, which is

situate in eight degrees or thereabouts. We abode there four or five

days, and in all that time we came not to the speech of any Indian or

Spaniard. On the coast we saw a fire, as we sailed from the Point Carao

towards Curiapan, but for fear of the Spaniards none durst come to speak

with us. I myself coasted it in my barge close aboard the shore and

landed in every cove, the better to know the island, while the ships

kept the channel. From Curiapan after a few days we turned up north-east

to 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, the

better to come to speech with some of the inhabitants, and also to

understand the rivers, watering-places, and ports of the island, which,

as it is rudely done, my purpose is to send your Lordship after a few

days. 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 thence

I rowed to another port, called by the naturals Piche, and by the

Spaniards Tierra de Brea. In the way between both were divers little

brooks of fresh water, and one salt river that had store of oysters upon

the branches of the trees, and were very salt and well tasted. All their

oysters grow upon those boughs and sprays, and not on the ground; the

like is commonly seen in other places of the West Indies, and elsewhere.

This tree is described by Andrew Thevet, in his France Antarctique, and

the form figured in the book as a plant very strange; and by Pliny in

his twelfth book of his Natural History. But in this island, as also in

Guiana, there are very many of them.

At this point, called Tierra de Brea or Piche, there is that abundance

of stone pitch that all the ships of the world may be therewith laden

from thence; and we made trial of it in trimming our ships to be most

excellent good, and melteth not with the sun as the pitch of Norway, and

therefore for ships trading the south parts very profitable. From thence

we went to the mountain foot called Annaperima, and so passing the river

Carone, on which the Spanish city was seated, we met with our ships at

Puerto 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 will

bear sugar, ginger, or any other commodity that the Indies yield. It

hath store of deer, wild porks, fruit, fish, and fowl; it hath also for

bread sufficient maize, cassavi, and of those roots and fruits which are

common everywhere in the West Indies. It hath divers beasts which the

Indies have not; the Spaniards confessed that they found grains of gold

in some of the rivers; but they having a purpose to enter Guiana, the

magazine of all rich metals, cared not to spend time in the search

thereof any further. This island is called by the people thereof Cairi,

and in it are divers nations. Those about Parico are called Jajo, those

at Punta de Carao are of the Arwacas (Arawaks) and between Carao and

Curiapan they are called Salvajos. Between Carao and Punta de Galera

are the Nepojos, and those about the Spanish city term themselves

Carinepagotes (Carib-people). Of the rest of the nations, and of

other ports and rivers, I leave to speak here, being impertinent to my

purpose, and mean to describe them as they are situate in the particular

plot and description of the island, three parts whereof I coasted with

my barge, that I might the better describe it.

Meeting with the ships at Puerto de los Espanoles, we found at the

landing-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 with

them, whom afterwards to my great grief I left buried in the said island

after my return from Guiana, being a man most honest and valiant. The

Spaniards seemed to be desirous to trade with us, and to enter into

terms of peace, more for doubt of their own strength than for aught

else; and in the end, upon pledge, some of them came aboard. The same

evening there stale also aboard us in a small canoa two Indians, the one

of them being a cacique or lord of the people, called Cantyman, who had

the year before been with Captain Whiddon, and was of his acquaintance.

By this Cantyman we understood what strength the Spaniards had, how far

it was to their city, and of Don Antonio de Berreo, the governor, who

was said to be slain in his second attempt of Guiana, but was not.

While we remained at Puerto de los Espanoles some Spaniards came aboard

us 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 kindly

and feasted after our manner. By means whereof I learned of one and

another as much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as they knew; for

those poor soldiers having been many years without wine, a few draughts

made them merry, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana and the riches

thereof, and all what they knew of the ways and passages; myself seeming

to purpose nothing less than the entrance or discovery thereof, but bred

in them an opinion that I was bound only for the relief of those English

which I had planted in Virginia, whereof the bruit was come among them;

which I had performed in my return, if extremity of weather had not

forced me from the said coast.

I found occasions of staying in this place for two causes. The one was

to be revenged of Berreo, who the year before, 1594, had betrayed eight

of Captain Whiddon's men, and took them while he departed from them to

seek the Edward Bonaventure, which arrived at Trinidad the day before

from the East Indies: in whose absence Berreo sent a canoa aboard the

pinnace only with Indians and dogs inviting the company to go with them

into the woods to kill a deer. Who like wise men, in the absence of

their captain followed the Indians, but were no sooner one arquebus

shot from the shore, but Berreo's soldiers lying in ambush had them all,

notwithstanding that he had given his word to Captain Whiddon that they

should take water and wood safely. The other cause of my stay was, for

that by discourse with the Spaniards I daily learned more and more of

Guiana, of the rivers and passages, and of the enterprise of Berreo, by

what 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 the

north side of the island, that Berreo had sent to Margarita and Cumana

for soldiers, meaning to have given me a cassado (blow) at parting, if

it had been possible. For although he had given order through all the

island that no Indian should come aboard to trade with me upon pain of

hanging and quartering (having executed two of them for the same,

which I afterwards found), yet every night there came some with most

lamentable complaints of his cruelty: how he had divided the island and

given to every soldier a part; that he made the ancient caciques, which

were lords of the country, to be their slaves; that he kept them in

chains, and dropped their naked bodies with burning bacon, and such

other 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 dead

of famine, and wasted with torments. These are called in their own

language acarewana, and now of late since English, French, and Spanish,

are come among them, they call themselves captains, because they

perceive 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 the

former 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 my

back interested in the same enterprise, who also daily expected supplies

out of Spain, I should have savoured very much of the ass; and therefore

taking a time of most advantage, I set upon the Corps du garde in

the evening, and having put them to the sword, sent Captain Caulfield

onwards with sixty soldiers, and myself followed with forty more, and so

took their new city, which they called St. Joseph, by break of day. They

abode not any fight after a few shot, and all being dismissed, but

only Berreo and his companion (the Portuguese captain Alvaro Jorge), I

brought them with me aboard, and at the instance of the Indians I set

their new city of St. Joseph on fire. The same day arrived Captain

George Gifford with your lordship's ship, and Captain Keymis, whom

I lost on the coast of Spain, with the galego, and in them divers

gentlemen and others, which to our little army was a great comfort and

supply.

We then hasted away towards our purposed discovery, and first I called

all the captains of the island together that were enemies to the

Spaniards; for there were some which Berreo had brought out of other

countries, and planted there to eat out and waste those that were

natural of the place. And by my Indian interpreter, which I carried out

of England, I made them understand that I was the servant of a queen who

was the great cacique of the north, and a virgin, and had more caciqui

under her than there were trees in that island; that she was an enemy to

the Castellani in respect of their tyranny and oppression, and that she

delivered all such nations about her, as were by them oppressed; and

having freed all the coast of the northern world from their servitude,

had sent me to free them also, and withal to defend the country of

Guiana from their invasion and conquest. I shewed them her Majesty's

picture, which they so admired and honoured, as it had been easy to have

brought them idolatrous thereof. The like and a more large discourse

I made to the rest of the nations, both in my passing to Guiana and to

those of the borders, so as in that part of the world her Majesty

is very famous and admirable; whom they now call EZRABETA CASSIPUNA

AQUEREWANA, which is as much as 'Elizabeth, the Great Princess, or

Greatest Commander.' This done, we left Puerto de los Espanoles, and

returned to Curiapan, and having Berreo my prisoner, I gathered from him

as much of Guiana as he knew. This Berreo is a gentleman well descended,

and had long served the Spanish king in Milan, Naples, the Low

Countries, and elsewhere, very valiant and liberal, and a gentleman of

great assuredness, and of a great heart. I used him according to his

estate and worth in all things I could, according to the small means I

had.

I sent Captain Whiddon the year before to get what knowledge he could of

Guiana: and the end of my journey at this time was to discover and enter

the same. But my intelligence was far from truth, for the country is

situate about 600 English miles further from the sea than I was made

believe it had been. Which afterwards understanding to be true by

Berreo, I kept it from the knowledge of my company, who else would never

have 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 of

desire to perform that discovery than of reason, especially having such

poor and weak vessels to transport ourselves in. For in the bottom of

an old galego which I caused to be fashioned like a galley, and in one

barge, two wherries, and a ship-boat of the Lion's Whelp, we carried 100

persons and their victuals for a month in the same, being all driven

to lie in the rain and weather in the open air, in the burning sun, and

upon the hard boards, and to dress our meat, and to carry all manner of

furniture in them. Wherewith they were so pestered and unsavoury, that

what with victuals being most fish, with the wet clothes of so many men

thrust together, and the heat of the sun, I will undertake there was

never any prison in England that could be found more unsavoury and

loathsome, especially to myself, who had for many years before been

dieted and cared for in a sort far more differing.

If Captain Preston had not been persuaded that he should have come too

late to Trinidad to have found us there (for the month was expired which

I promised to tarry for him there ere he could recover the coast of

Spain) but that it had pleased God he might have joined with us, and

that we had entered the country but some ten days sooner ere the rivers

were overflown, we had adventured either to have gone to the great city

of Manoa, or at least taken so many of the other cities and towns nearer

at hand, as would have made a royal return. But it pleased not God so

much to favour me at this time. If it shall be my lot to prosecute the

same, I shall willingly spend my life therein. And if any else shall

be enabled thereunto, and conquer the same, I assure him thus much; he

shall perform more than ever was done in Mexico by Cortes, or in Peru by

Pizarro, whereof the one conquered the empire of Mutezuma, the other

of Guascar and Atabalipa. And whatsoever prince shall possess it, that

prince shall be lord of more gold, and of a more beautiful empire, and

of more cities and people, than either the king of Spain or the Great

Turk.

But because there may arise many doubts, and how this empire of Guiana

is become so populous, and adorned with so many great cities, towns,

temples, and treasures, I thought good to make it known, that the

emperor now reigning is descended from those magnificent princes

of Peru, of whose large territories, of whose policies, conquests,

edifices, and riches, Pedro de Cieza, Francisco Lopez, and others have

written large discourses. For when Francisco Pizarro, Diego Almagro

and others conquered the said empire of Peru, and had put to death

Atabalipa, son to Guayna Capac, which Atabalipa had formerly caused his

eldest brother Guascar to be slain, one of the younger sons of Guayna

Capac fled out of Peru, and took with him many thousands of those

soldiers of the empire called orejones ("having large ears," the name

given by the Spaniards to the Peruvian warriors, who wore ear-pendants),

and with those and many others which followed him, he vanquished all

that tract and valley of America which is situate between the great

river 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, and

lieth under the equinoctial line; and it hath more abundance of gold

than any part of Peru, and as many or more great cities than ever Peru

had when it flourished most. It is governed by the same laws, and the

emperor and people observe the same religion, and the same form and

policies 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, the

imperial city of Guiana, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, that

for the greatness, for the riches, and for the excellent seat, it far

exceedeth any of the world, at least of so much of the world as is known

to the Spanish nation. It is founded upon a lake of salt water of 200

leagues long, like unto Mare Caspium. And if we compare it to that of

Peru, and but read the report of Francisco Lopez and others, it will

seem more than credible; and because we may judge of the one by the

other, I thought good to insert part of the 120. chapter of Lopez in

his General History of the Indies, wherein he describeth the court and

magnificence of Guayna Capac, ancestor to the emperor of Guiana, whose

very 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 recamara

estatuas huecas de oro, que parescian gigantes, y las figuras al propio

y tamano de cuantos animales, aves, arboles, y yerbas produce la tierra,

y de cuantos peces cria la mar y agua de sus reynos. Tenia asimesmo

sogas, costales, cestas, y troxes de oro y plata; rimeros de palos de

oro, que pareciesen lena rajada para quemar. En fin no habia cosa en su

tierra, que no la tuviese de oro contrahecha; y aun dizen, que tenian

los Ingas un verjel en una isla cerca de la Puna, donde se iban a

holgar, cuando querian mar, que tenia la hortaliza, las flores, y

arboles de oro y plata; invencion y grandeza hasta entonces nunca vista.

Allende de todo esto, tenia infinitisima cantidad de plata y oro por

labrar en el Cuzco, que se perdio por la muerte de Guascar; ca los

Indios lo escondieron, viendo que los Espanoles se lo tomaban, y

enviaban a Espana."

That is, "All the vessels of his house, table, and kitchen, were of

gold and silver, and the meanest of silver and copper for strength and

hardness of metal. He had in his wardrobe hollow statues of gold which

seemed giants, and the figures in proportion and bigness of all the

beasts, birds, trees, and herbs, that the earth bringeth forth; and of

all the fishes that the sea or waters of his kingdom breedeth. He had

also ropes, budgets, chests, and troughs of gold and silver, heaps of

billets of gold, that seemed wood marked out (split into logs) to

burn. Finally, there was nothing in his country whereof he had not

the counterfeit in gold. Yea, and they say, the Ingas had a garden of

pleasure in an island near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves,

when they would take the air of the sea, which had all kinds of

garden-herbs, flowers, and trees of gold and silver; an invention and

magnificence till then never seen. Besides all this, he had an infinite

quantity of silver and gold unwrought in Cuzco, which was lost by the

death of Guascar, for the Indians hid it, seeing that the Spaniards took

it, and sent it into Spain."

And in the 117. chapter; Francisco Pizarro caused the gold and silver of

Atabalipa to be weighed after he had taken it, which Lopez setteth down

in these words following:--"Hallaron cincuenta y dos mil marcos de buena

plata, y un millon y trecientos y veinte y seis mil y quinientos

pesos de oro." Which is, "They found 52,000 marks of good silver, and

1,326,500 pesos of gold." Now, although these reports may seem strange,

yet if we consider the many millions which are daily brought out of

Peru into Spain, we may easily believe the same. For we find that by the

abundant treasure of that country the Spanish king vexes all the princes

of 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 to

increase if other princes forslow the good occasions offered, and suffer

him 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 the

Spaniards as afterwards endeavoured the conquest thereof, whereof there

have been many, as shall be declared hereafter, thought that this Inga,

of whom this emperor now living is descended, took his way by the river

of Amazons, by that branch which is called Papamene (The Papamene is a

tributary not of the Amazon river but of the Meta, one of the principal

tributaries of the Orinoco). For by that way followed Orellana, by the

commandment of Gonzalo Pizarro, in the year 1542, whose name the river

also beareth this day. Which is also by others called Maranon, although

Andrew Thevet doth affirm that between Maranon and Amazons there are 120

leagues; but sure it is that those rivers have one head and beginning,

and the Maranon, which Thevet describeth, is but a branch of Amazons or

Orellana, of which I will speak more in another place. It was attempted

by Ordas; but it is now little less than 70 years since that Diego

Ordas, a Knight of the Order of Santiago, attempted the same; and it was

in the year 1542 that Orellana discovered the river of Amazons; but the

first that ever saw Manoa was Juan Martinez, master of the munition

to 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 port

is 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 at

Curiapan.

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 de

Puerto Rico, whereof Berreo had a copy, which appeared to be the

greatest encouragement as well to Berreo as to others that formerly

attempted the discovery and conquest. Orellana, after he failed of the

discovery of Guiana by the said river of Amazons, passed into Spain, and

there obtained a patent of the king for the invasion and conquest, but

died by sea about the islands; and his fleet being severed by tempest,

the action for that time proceeded not. Diego Ordas followed the

enterprise, and departed Spain with 600 soldiers and thirty horse. Who,

arriving on the coast of Guiana, was slain in a mutiny, with the most

part of such as favoured him, as also of the rebellious part, insomuch

as his ships perished and few or none returned; neither was it certainly

known what became of the said Ordas until Berreo found the anchor of his

ship in the river of Orenoque; but it was supposed, and so it is written

by Lopez, that he perished on the seas, and of other writers diversely

conceived and reported. And hereof it came that Martinez entered so far

within the land, and arrived at that city of Inga the emperor; for it

chanced that while Ordas with his army rested at the port of Morequito

(who was either the first or second that attempted Guiana), by some

negligence the whole store of powder provided for the service was set

on fire, and Martinez, having the chief charge, was condemned by the

General Ordas to be executed forthwith. Martinez, being much favoured by

the soldiers, had all the means possible procured for his life; but it

could not be obtained in other sort than this, that he should be set

into a canoa alone, without any victual, only with his arms, and so

turned loose into the great river. But it pleased God that the canoa was

carried down the stream, and certain of the Guianians met it the same

evening; and, having not at any time seen any Christian nor any man of

that colour, they carried Martinez into the land to be wondered at, and

so from town to town, until he came to the great city of Manoa, the seat

and 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 brethren

Guascar and Atabalipa were vanquished by the Spaniards in Peru: and

caused him to be lodged in his palace, and well entertained. He lived

seven months in Manoa, but was not suffered to wander into the country

anywhere. He was also brought thither all the way blindfold, led by the

Indians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa itself, and was fourteen

or fifteen days in the passage. He avowed at his death that he entered

the city at noon, and then they uncovered his face; and that he

travelled all that day till night through the city, and the next day

from sun rising to sun setting, ere he came to the palace of Inga. After

that Martinez had lived seven months in Manoa, and began to understand

the language of the country, Inga asked him whether he desired to return

into his own country, or would willingly abide with him. But Martinez,

not desirous to stay, obtained the favour of Inga to depart; with whom

he sent divers Guianians to conduct him to the river of Orenoque, all

loaden with as much gold as they could carry, which he gave to Martinez

at his departure. But when he was arrived near the river's side, the

borderers which are called Orenoqueponi (poni is a Carib postposition

meaning "on") robbed him and his Guianians of all the treasure (the

borderers being at that time at wars, which Inga had not conquered) save

only of two great bottles of gourds, which were filled with beads of

gold curiously wrought, which those Orenoqueponi thought had been

no other thing than his drink or meat, or grain for food, with which

Martinez had liberty to pass. And so in canoas he fell down from the

river of Orenoque to Trinidad, and from thence to Margarita, and so to

St. Juan del Puerto Rico; where, remaining a long time for passage into

Spain, he died. In the time of his extreme sickness, and when he was

without hope of life, receiving the sacrament at the hands of his

confessor, he delivered these things, with the relation of his travels,

and also called for his calabazas or gourds of the gold beads, which he

gave to the church and friars, to be prayed for.

This Martinez was he that christened the city of Manoa by the name of El

Dorado, 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 can

compare with them; and at the times of their solemn feasts, when the

emperor carouseth with his captains, tributaries, and governors, the

manner is thus. All those that pledge him are first stripped naked and

their bodies anointed all over with a kind of white balsamum (by them

called curca), of which there is great plenty, and yet very dear amongst

them, and it is of all other the most precious, whereof we have had good

experience. When they are anointed all over, certain servants of the

emperor, having prepared gold made into fine powder, blow it through

hollow canes upon their naked bodies, until they be all shining from

the foot to the head; and in this sort they sit drinking by twenties

and hundreds, and continue in drunkenness sometimes six or seven days

together. The same is also confirmed by a letter written into Spain

which 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 of

gold which they use in the wars, he called it El Dorado.

After the death of Ordas and Martinez, and after Orellana, who was

employed by Gonzalo Pizarro, one Pedro de Orsua, a knight of Navarre,

attempted Guiana, taking his way into Peru, and built his brigandines

upon a river called Oia, which riseth to the southward of Quito, and

is very great. This river falleth into Amazons, by which Orsua with

his companies descended, and came out of that province which is called

Motilones ("friars"--Indians so named from their cropped heads); and

it seemeth to me that this empire is reserved for her Majesty and the

English nation, by reason of the hard success which all these and other

Spaniards found in attempting the same, whereof I will speak briefly,

though impertinent in some sort to my purpose. This Pedro de Orsua had

among his troops a Biscayan called Aguirre, a man meanly born, who bare

no other office than a sergeant or alferez (al-faris, Arab.--horseman,

mounted officer): but after certain months, when the soldiers were

grieved with travels and consumed with famine, and that no entrance

could be found by the branches or body of Amazons, this Aguirre raised

a mutiny, of which he made himself the head, and so prevailed as he put

Orsua to the sword and all his followers, taking on him the whole charge

and commandment, with a purpose not only to make himself emperor of

Guiana, but also of Peru and of all that side of the West Indies. He had

of his party 700 soldiers, and of those many promised to draw in other

captains and companies, to deliver up towns and forts in Peru; but

neither finding by the said river any passage into Guiana, nor any

possibility to return towards Peru by the same Amazons, by reason that

the descent of the river made so great a current, he was enforced to

disemboque at the mouth of the said Amazons, which cannot be less than

1,000 leagues from the place where they embarked. From thence he coasted

the land till he arrived at Margarita to the north of Mompatar, which is

at this day called Puerto de Tyranno, for that he there slew Don Juan

de Villa Andreda, Governor of Margarita, who was father to Don Juan

Sarmiento, Governor of Margarita when Sir John Burgh landed there and

attempted the island. Aguirre put to the sword all other in the island

that refused to be of his party, and took with him certain cimarrones

(fugitive slaves) and other desperate companions. From thence he went to

Cumana 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 of

Rio de la Hacha; and, as I remember, it was the same year that Sir John

Hawkins sailed to St. Juan de Ullua in the Jesus of Lubeck; for himself

told me that he met with such a one upon the coast, that rebelled, and

had sailed down all the river of Amazons. Aguirre from thence landed

about Santa Marta and sacked it also, putting to death so many as

refused to be his followers, purposing to invade Nuevo Reyno de Granada

and to sack Pamplona, Merida, Lagrita, Tunja, and the rest of the cities

of Nuevo Reyno, and from thence again to enter Peru; but in a fight in

the said Nuevo Reyno he was overthrown, and, finding no way to escape,

he first put to the sword his own children, foretelling them that they

should not live to be defamed or upbraided by the Spaniards after his

death, who would have termed them the children of a traitor or tyrant;

and that, sithence he could not make them princes, he would yet deliver

them from shame and reproach. These were the ends and tragedies of

Ordas, Martinez, Orellana, Orsua, and Aguirre. Also soon after Ordas

followed Jeronimo Ortal de Saragosa, with 130 soldiers; who failing his

entrance by sea, was cast with the current on the coast of Paria, and

peopled about S. Miguel de Neveri. It was then attempted by Don Pedro

de Silva, a Portuguese of the family of Ruy Gomez de Silva, and by the

favour which Ruy Gomez had with the king he was set out. But he also

shot wide of the mark; for being departed from Spain with his fleet, he

entered by Maranon or Amazons, where by the nations of the river and

by the Amazons, he was utterly overthrown, and himself and all his army

defeated; only seven escaped, and of those but two returned.

After him came Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, and landed at Cumana, in the

West Indies, taking his journey by land towards Orenoque, which may be

some 120 leagues; but ere he came to the borders of the said river, he

was set upon by a nation of the Indians, called Wikiri, and overthrown

in such sort, that of 300 soldiers, horsemen, many Indians, and negroes,

there returned but eighteen. Others affirm that he was defeated in the

very entrance of Guiana, at the first civil town of the empire called

Macureguarai. Captain Preston, in taking Santiago de Leon (which was by

him and his companies very resolutely performed, being a great town, and

far 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 those

that escaped; who witnessed what opinion is held among the Spaniards

thereabouts of the great riches of Guiana, and El Dorado, the city of

Inga. Another Spaniard was brought aboard me by Captain Preston, who

told me in the hearing of himself and divers other gentlemen, that he

met with Berreo's campmaster at Caracas, when he came from the borders

of 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 to

the Spanish king.

After Hernandez de Serpa, it was undertaken by the Adelantado, Don

Gonzalez Ximenes de Quesada, who was one of the chiefest in the conquest

of Nuevo Reyno, whose daughter and heir Don Antonio de Berreo married.

Gonzalez sought the passage also by the river called Papamene, which

riseth by Quito, in Peru, and runneth south-east 100 leagues, and then

falleth into Amazons. But he also, failing the entrance, returned with

the loss of much labour and cost. I took one Captain George, a Spaniard,

that followed Gonzalez in this enterprise. Gonzalez gave his daughter to

Berreo, taking his oath and honour to follow the enterprise to the last

of his substance and life. Who since, as he hath sworn to me, hath spent

300,000 ducats in the same, and yet never could enter so far into the

land as myself with that poor troop, or rather a handful of men, being

in all about 100 gentlemen, soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and of

all sorts; neither could any of the forepassed undertakers, nor Berreo

himself, discover the country, till now lately by conference with an

ancient king, called Carapana (Caribana, Carib land, was an old European

name for the Atlantic coast near the mouth of the Orinoco, and hence was

applied to one of its chiefs. Berrio called this district "Emeria"),

he got the true light thereof. For Berreo came about 1,500 miles ere he

understood aught, or could find any passage or entrance into any part

thereof; yet he had experience of all these fore-named, and divers

others, and was persuaded of their errors and mistakings. Berreo sought

it by the river Cassanar, which falleth into a great river called Pato:

Pato falleth into Meta, and Meta into Baraquan, which is also called

Orenoque. He took his journey from Nuevo Reyno de Granada, where he

dwelt, having the inheritance of Gonzalez Ximenes in those parts; he was

followed with 700 horse, he drove with him 1,000 head of cattle, he had

also many women, Indians, and slaves. How all these rivers cross and

encounter, how the country lieth and is bordered, the passage of Ximenes

and Berreo, mine own discovery, and the way that I entered, with all the

rest of the nations and rivers, your lordship shall receive in a large

chart or map, which I have not yet finished, and which I shall most

humbly pray your lordship to secrete, and not to suffer it to pass

your own hands; for by a draught thereof all may be prevented by other

nations; for I know it is this very year sought by the French, although

by the way that they now take, I fear it not much. It was also told me

ere I departed England, that Villiers, the Admiral, was in preparation

for the planting of Amazons, to which river the French have made divers

voyages, and returned much gold and other rarities. I spake with a

captain of a French ship that came from thence, his ship riding in

Falmouth the same year that my ships came first from Virginia; there was

another this year in Helford, that also came from thence, and had been

fourteen months at an anchor in Amazons; which were both very rich.

Although, as I am persuaded, Guiana cannot be entered that way, yet no

doubt the trade of gold from thence passeth by branches of rivers into

the river of Amazons, and so it doth on every hand far from the country

itself; for those Indians of Trinidad have plates of gold from Guiana,

and those cannibals of Dominica which dwell in the islands by which our

ships pass yearly to the West Indies, also the Indians of Paria, those

Indians called Tucaris, Chochi, Apotomios, Cumanagotos, and all those

other nations inhabiting near about the mountains that run from Paria

through the province of Venezuela, and in Maracapana, and the cannibals

of Guanipa, the Indians called Assawai, Coaca, Ajai, and the rest (all

which shall be described in my description as they are situate) have

plates of gold of Guiana. And upon the river of Amazons, Thevet writeth

that the people wear croissants of gold, for of that form the Guianians

most commonly make them; so as from Dominica to Amazons, which is above

250 leagues, all the chief Indians in all parts wear of those plates of

Guiana. Undoubtedly those that trade Amazons return much gold, which

(as is aforesaid) cometh by trade from Guiana, by some branch of a river

that falleth from the country into Amazons, and either it is by the

river which passeth by the nations called Tisnados, or by Caripuna.

I made enquiry amongst the most ancient and best travelled of the

Orenoqueponi, and I had knowledge of all the rivers between Orenoque and

Amazons, and was very desirous to understand the truth of those warlike

women, because of some it is believed, of others not. And though I

digress from my purpose, yet I will set down that which hath been

delivered me for truth of those women, and I spake with a cacique, or

lord of people, that told me he had been in the river, and beyond it

also. The nations of these women are on the south side of the river in

the provinces of Topago, and their chiefest strengths and retracts

are in the islands situate on the south side of the entrance, some 60

leagues within the mouth of the said river. The memories of the like

women are very ancient as well in Africa as in Asia. In Africa those

that had Medusa for queen; others in Scythia, near the rivers of Tanais

and Thermodon. We find, also, that Lampedo and Marthesia were queens of

the Amazons. In many histories they are verified to have been, and in

divers ages and provinces; but they which are not far from Guiana do

accompany 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 all

kings of the borders assemble, and queens of the Amazons; and after the

queens have chosen, the rest cast lots for their valentines. This one

month they feast, dance, and drink of their wines in abundance; and the

moon being done they all depart to their own provinces. They are said

to be very cruel and bloodthirsty, especially to such as offer to invade

their territories. These Amazons have likewise great store of these

plates of gold, which they recover by exchange chiefly for a kind of

green stones, which the Spaniards call piedras hijadas, and we use for

spleen-stones (stones reduced to powder and taken internally to cure

maladies of the spleen); and for the disease of the stone we also

esteem them. Of these I saw divers in Guiana; and commonly every king

or cacique hath one, which their wives for the most part wear, and they

esteem them as great jewels.

But to return to the enterprise of Berreo, who, as I have said, departed

from Nuevo Reyno with 700 horse, besides the provisions above rehearsed.

He descended by the river called Cassanar, which riseth in Nuevo Reyno

out of the mountains by the city of Tunja, from which mountain also

springeth Pato; both which fall into the great river of Meta, and Meta

riseth from a mountain joining to Pamplona, in the same Nuevo Reyno de

Granada. These, as also Guaiare, which issueth out of the mountains by

Timana, fall all into Baraquan, and are but of his heads; for at their

coming together they lose their names, and Baraquan farther down is also

rebaptized by the name of Orenoque. On the other side of the city and

hills of Timana riseth Rio Grande, which falleth into the sea by Santa

Marta. By Cassanar first, and so into Meta, Berreo passed, keeping his

horsemen on the banks, where the country served them for to march; and

where otherwise, he was driven to embark them in boats which he builded

for 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, he

began daily to lose of his companies both men and horse; for it is in

many 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 grew

daily to fewer numbers; from both by sickness, and by encountering with

the people of those regions through which he travelled, his companies

were much wasted, especially by divers encounters with the Amapaians

(Amapaia was Berrio's name for the Orinoco valley above the Caura

river). And in all this time he never could learn of any passage into

Guiana, nor any news or fame thereof, until he came to a further border

of the said Amapaia, eight days' journey from the river Caroli (the

Caroni river, the first great affluent of the Orinoco on the south,

about 180 miles from the sea), which was the furthest river that he

entered. Among those of Amapaia, Guiana was famous; but few of these

people accosted Berreo, or would trade with him the first three months

of the six which he sojourned there. This Amapaia is also marvellous

rich in gold, as both Berreo confessed and those of Guiana with whom I

had most conference; and is situate upon Orenoque also. In this country

Berreo lost sixty of his best soldiers, and most of all his horse that

remained in his former year's travel. But in the end, after divers

encounters with those nations, they grew to peace, and they presented

Berreo with ten images of fine gold among divers other plates and

croissants, which, as he sware to me, and divers other gentlemen, were

so curiously wrought, as he had not seen the like either in Italy,

Spain, or the Low Countries; and he was resolved that when they came

to the hands of the Spanish king, to whom he had sent them by his

camp-master, they would appear very admirable, especially being wrought

by such a nation as had no iron instruments at all, nor any of those

helps which our goldsmiths have to work withal. The particular name of

the people in Amapaia which gave him these pieces, are called Anebas,

and the river of Orenoque at that place is about twelve English miles

broad, 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 the

river; and by reason of the red water which issueth out in small

branches through the fenny and boggy ground, there breed divers

poisonful worms and serpents. And the Spaniards not suspecting, nor in

any sort foreknowing the danger, were infected with a grievous kind of

flux by drinking thereof, and even the very horses poisoned therewith;

insomuch as at the end of the six months that they abode there, of all

their troops there were not left above 120 soldiers, and neither horse

nor cattle. For Berreo hoped to have found Guiana be 1,000 miles nearer

than it fell out to be in the end; by means whereof they sustained much

want, and much hunger, oppressed with grievous diseases, and all the

miseries that could be imagined. I demanded of those in Guiana that had

travelled Amapaia, how they lived with that tawny or red water when

they travelled thither; and they told me that after the sun was near the

middle of the sky, they used to fill their pots and pitchers with that

water, but either before that time or towards the setting of the sun

it was dangerous to drink of, and in the night strong poison. I learned

also of divers other rivers of that nature among them, which were

also, while the sun was in the meridian, very safe to drink, and in the

morning, evening, and night, wonderful dangerous and infective. From

this province Berreo hasted away as soon as the spring and beginning of

summer appeared, and sought his entrance on the borders of Orenoque

on the south side; but there ran a ledge of so high and impassable

mountains, as he was not able by any means to march over them,

continuing from the east sea into which Orenoque falleth, even to Quito

in Peru. Neither had he means to carry victual or munition over those

craggy, high, and fast hills, being all woody, and those so thick and

spiny, and so full or prickles, thorns, and briars, as it is impossible

to creep through them. He had also neither friendship among the people,

nor any interpreter to persuade or treat with them; and more, to his

disadvantage, the caciques and kings of Amapaia had given knowledge of

his purpose to the Guianians, and that he sought to sack and conquer the

empire, for the hope of their so great abundance and quantities of gold.

He passed by the mouths of many great rivers which fell into Orenoque

both 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 from

the north and south: whereof the least was as big as Rio Grande (the

Magdalena), that passed between Popayan and Nuevo Reyno de Granada, Rio

Grande 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 the

names of any of these, but Caroli only; neither from what nations they

descended, neither to what provinces they led, for he had no means to

discourse with the inhabitants at any time; neither was he curious in

these things, being utterly unlearned, and not knowing the east from the

west. But of all these I got some knowledge, and of many more, partly by

mine 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 I

came to understand the situations, the rivers, the kingdoms from the

east sea to the borders of Peru, and from Orenoque southward as far as

Amazons or Maranon, and the regions of Marinatambal (north coasts of

Brazil), and of all the kings of provinces, and captains of towns

and villages, how they stood in terms of peace or war, and which were

friends or enemies the one with the other; without which there can be

neither entrance nor conquest in those parts, nor elsewhere. For by the

dissension between Guascar and Atabalipa, Pizarro conquered Peru, and by

the hatred that the Tlaxcallians bare to Mutezuma, Cortes was victorious

over Mexico; without which both the one and the other had failed of

their enterprise, and of the great honour and riches which they attained

unto.

Now Berreo began to grow into despair, and looked for no other success

than his predecessor in this enterprise; until such time as he arrived

at 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 full

of all manner of victual. The king of this land is called Carapana, a

man very wise, subtle, and of great experience, being little less than

an hundred years old. In his youth he was sent by his father into the

island of Trinidad, by reason of civil war among themselves, and was

bred at a village in that island, called Parico. At that place in his

youth he had seen many Christians, both French and Spanish, and went

divers times with the Indians of Trinidad to Margarita and Cumana, in

the West Indies, for both those places have ever been relieved with

victual from Trinidad: by reason whereof he grew of more understanding,

and noted the difference of the nations, comparing the strength and arms

of his country with those of the Christians, and ever after temporised

so as whosoever else did amiss, or was wasted by contention, Carapana

kept himself and his country in quiet and plenty. He also held peace

with the Caribs or cannibals, his neighbours, and had free trade with

all nations, whosoever else had war.

Berreo sojourned and rested his weak troop in the town of Carapana

six weeks, and from him learned the way and passage to Guiana, and

the riches and magnificence thereof. But being then utterly unable to

proceed, he determined to try his fortune another year, when he had

renewed his provisions, and regathered more force, which he hoped for

as well out of Spain as from Nuevo Reyno, where he had left his son

Don Antonio Ximenes to second him upon the first notice given of his

entrance; and so for the present embarked himself in canoas, and by

the branches of Orenoque arrived at Trinidad, having from Carapana

sufficient pilots to conduct him. From Trinidad he coasted Paria, and so

recovered Margarita; and having made relation to Don Juan Sarmiento, the

Governor, of his proceeding, and persuaded him of the riches of Guiana,

he obtained from thence fifty soldiers, promising presently to return

to Carapana, and so into Guiana. But Berreo meant nothing less at that

time; for he wanted many provisions necessary for such an enterprise,

and therefore departed from Margarita, seated himself in Trinidad, and

from thence sent his camp-master and his sergeant-major back to the

borders to discover the nearest passage into the empire, as also to

treat 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 be

relieved with victual or aught else. Carapana directed his company to a

king called Morequito, assuring them that no man could deliver so much

Guiana 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 the

greatest lords or kings of the borders of Guiana, had two or three years

before been at Cumana and at Margarita, in the West Indies, with great

store of plates of gold, which he carried to exchange for such other

things as he wanted in his own country, and was daily feasted, and

presented by the governors of those places, and held amongst them some

two months. In which time one Vides, Governor of Cumana, won him to be

his conductor into Guiana, being allured by those croissants and images

of gold which he brought with him to trade, as also by the ancient fame

and magnificence of El Dorado; whereupon Vides sent into Spain for a

patent to discover and conquer Guiana, not knowing of the precedence of

Berreo's patent; which, as Berreo affirmeth, was signed before that

of Vidas. So as when Vides understood of Berreo and that he had made

entrance into that territory, and foregone his desire and hope, it was

verily thought that Vides practised with Morequito to hinder and disturb

Berreo in all he could, and not to suffer him to enter through his

seignory, nor any of his companies; neither to victual, nor guide them

in any sort. For Vides, Governor of Cumana, and Berreo, were become

mortal enemies, as well for that Berreo had gotten Trinidad into his

patent with Guiana, as also in that he was by Berreo prevented in the

journey of Guiana itself. Howsoever it was, I know not, but Morequito

for a time dissembled his disposition, suffered ten Spaniards and a

friar, which Berreo had sent to discover Manoa, to travel through his

country, gave them a guide for Macureguarai, the first town of civil and

apparelled people, from whence they had other guides to bring them to

Manoa, the great city of Inga; and being furnished with those things

which they had learned of Carapana were of most price in Guiana, went

onward, and in eleven days arrived at Manoa, as Berreo affirmeth for

certain; although I could not be assured thereof by the lord which now

governeth the province of Morequito, for he told me that they got all

the gold they had in other towns on this side Manoa, there being

many very great and rich, and (as he said) built like the towns of

Christians, with many rooms.

When these ten Spaniards were returned, and ready to put out of the

border of Aromaia (the district below the Caroni river), the people of

Morequito 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 them

only lived to bring the news to Berreo, that both his nine soldiers and

holy father were benighted in the said province. I myself spake with the

captains of Morequito that slew them, and was at the place where it was

executed. Berreo, enraged herewithal, sent all the strength he could

make into Aromaia, to be revenged of him, his people, and country. But

Morequito, suspecting the same, fled over Orenoque, and through the

territories of the Saima and Wikiri recovered Cumana, where he thought

himself very safe, with Vides the governor. But Berreo sending for him

in the king's name, and his messengers finding him in the house of one

Fajardo, on the sudden, ere he was suspected, so as he could not then be

conveyed away, Vides durst not deny him, as well to avoid the suspicion

of the practice, as also for that an holy father was slain by him and

his people. Morequito offered Fajardo the weight of three quintals in

gold, 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 his

territory and took divers prisoners. Among others they took the uncle

of Morequito, called Topiawari, who is now king of Aromaia, whose son

I brought with me into England, and is a man of great understanding

and policy; he is above an hundred years old, and yet is of a very able

body. The Spaniards led him in a chain seventeen days, and made him

their guide from place to place between his country and Emeria, the

province of Carapana aforesaid, and he was at last redeemed for an

hundred plates of gold, and divers stones called piedras hijadas,

or spleen-stones. Now Berreo for executing of Morequito, and other

cruelties, spoils, and slaughters done in Aromaia, hath lost the love of

the Orenoqueponi, and of all the borderers, and dare not send any of his

soldiers any further into the land than to Carapana, which he called

the port of Guiana; but from thence by the help of Carapana he had trade

further into the country, and always appointed ten Spaniards to reside

in Carapana's town (the Spanish settlement of Santo Tome de la Guyana,

founded by Berrio in 1591 or 1592, but represented by Raleigh as an

Indian pueblo), by whose favour, and by being conducted by his people,

those ten searched the country thereabouts, as well for mines as for

other trades and commodities.

They also have gotten a nephew of Morequito, whom they have christened

and named Don Juan, of whom they have great hope, endeavouring by all

means 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 of

Orenoque, and there buy women and children from the cannibals, which are

of that barbarous nature, as they will for three or four hatchets

sell the sons and daughters of their own brethren and sisters, and for

somewhat more even their own daughters. Hereof the Spaniards make great

profit; for buying a maid of twelve or thirteen years for three or four

hatchets, they sell them again at Margarita in the West Indies for fifty

and an hundred pesos, which is so many crowns.

The master of my ship, John Douglas, took one of the canoas which came

laden 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 well

shaped 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. They

also trade in those rivers for bread of cassavi, of which they buy

an hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at Margarita for ten

pesos. They also recover great store of cotton, Brazil wood, and those

beds which they call hamacas or Brazil beds, wherein in hot countries

all the Spaniards use to lie commonly, and in no other, neither did we

ourselves while we were there. By means of which trades, for ransom of

divers of the Guianians, and for exchange of hatchets and knives, Berreo

recovered some store of gold plates, eagles of gold, and images of men

and divers birds, and dispatched his camp-master for Spain, with all

that he had gathered, therewith to levy soldiers, and by the show

thereof to draw others to the love of the enterprise. And having sent

divers images as well of men as beasts, birds, and fishes, so curiously

wrought in gold, he doubted not but to persuade the king to yield to him

some 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 despatched

messengers 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 the

Caracas, to buy horses and mules.

After I had thus learned of his proceedings past and purposed, I told

him that I had resolved to see Guiana, and that it was the end of my

journey, and the cause of my coming to Trinidad, as it was indeed,

and for that purpose I sent Jacob Whiddon the year before to get

intelligence: with whom Berreo himself had speech at that time, and

remembered how inquisitive Jacob Whiddon was of his proceedings, and of

the country of Guiana. Berreo was stricken into a great melancholy and

sadness, and used all the arguments he could to dissuade me; and also

assured the gentlemen of my company that it would be labour lost, and

that they should suffer many miseries if they proceeded. And first he

delivered that I could not enter any of the rivers with any bark or

pinnace, or hardly with any ship's boat, it was so low, sandy, and full

of flats, and that his companies were daily grounded in their canoes,

which drew but twelve inches water. He further said that none of the

country would come to speak with us, but would all fly; and if we

followed them to their dwellings, they would burn their own towns. And

besides that, the way was long, the winter at hand, and that the rivers

beginning once to swell, it was impossible to stem the current; and that

we could not in those small boats by any means carry victuals for half

the time, and that (which indeed most discouraged my company) the kings

and lords of all the borders of Guiana had decreed that none of them

should trade with any Christians for gold, because the same would be

their own overthrow, and that for the love of gold the Christians meant

to conquer and dispossess them of all together.

Many and the most of these I found to be true; but yet I resolving to

make trial of whatsoever happened, directed Captain George Gifford, my

Vice-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 the

master to discover. Who found some nine foot water or better upon the

flood, and five at low water: to whom I had given instructions that they

should anchor at the edge of the shoal, and upon the best of the flood

to thrust over, which shoal John Douglas buoyed and beckoned (beaconed)

for them before. But they laboured in vain; for neither could they turn

it up altogether so far to the east, neither did the flood continue so

long, but the water fell ere they could have passed the sands. As we

after found by a second experience: so as now we must either give over

our 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 being

doubtful how to carry victuals for so long a time in such baubles, or

any strength of men, especially for that Berreo assured us that his son

must 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 of

the 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 ships

to enter. But when he came to the mouth of Amana, he found it as the

rest, but stayed not to discover it thoroughly, because he was assured

by an Indian, his guide, that the cannibals of Guanipa would assail them

with many canoas, and that they shot poisoned arrows; so as if he hasted

not back, they should all be lost.

In the meantime, fearing the worst, I caused all the carpenters we had

to cut down a galego boat, which we meant to cast off, and to fit her

with banks to row on, and in all things to prepare her the best they

could, so as she might be brought to draw but five foot: for so much we

had 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, as

also to make a perfect search in the bottom of the bay; for it hath been

held for infallible, that whatsoever ship or boat shall fall therein can

never disemboque again, by reason of the violent current which setteth

into the said bay, as also for that the breeze and easterly wind bloweth

directly 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 that

have traded to Trinidad.

I sent with John Douglas an old cacique of Trinidad for a pilot, who

told us that we could not return again by the bay or gulf, but that

he knew a by-branch which ran within the land to the eastward, and he

thought 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 the

bay thitherward it was shoal and but six foot water; so as we were now

without hope of any ship or bark to pass over, and therefore resolved to

go on with the boats, and the bottom of the galego, in which we thrust

60 men. In the Lion's Whelp's boat and wherry we carried twenty, Captain

Caulfield 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 for

a month in the same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to boil

and 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 cousin

Butshead Gorges, and eight more. In the galley, of gentlemen and

officers myself had Captain Thyn, my cousin John Greenvile, my nephew

John Gilbert, Captain Whiddon, Captain Keymis, Edward Hancock, Captain

Clarke, Lieutenant Hughes, Thomas Upton, Captain Facy, Jerome Ferrar,

Anthony Wells, William Connock, and above fifty more. We could not learn

of Berreo any other way to enter but in branches so far to windward as

it was impossible for us to recover; for we had as much sea to cross

over in our wherries, as between Dover and Calice, and in a great

hollow, the wind and current being both very strong. So as we were

driven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into the

bottom of the Bay of Guanipa, and from thence to enter the mouth of some

one of those rivers which John Douglas had last discovered; and had

with 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 he

was going from the said Barema, laden with cassavi bread to sell at

Margarita. This Arwacan promised to bring me into the great river of

Orenoque; 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 very

young, and of no judgment. And if God had not sent us another help, we

might have wandered a whole year in that labyrinth of rivers, ere we had

found any way, either out or in, especially after we were past ebbing

and flowing, which was in four days. For I know all the earth doth not

yield the like confluence of streams and branches, the one crossing

the other so many times, and all so fair and large, and so like one to

another, as no man can tell which to take: and if we went by the sun or

compass, hoping thereby to go directly one way or other, yet that way we

were also carried in a circle amongst multitudes of islands, and every

island so bordered with high trees as no man could see any further than

the 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 the

River of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first Christians that ever

came therein), the 22. of May, as we were rowing up the same, we espied

a small canoa with three Indians, which by the swiftness of my barge,

rowing with eight oars, I overtook ere they could cross the river. The

rest of the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick wood, gazed

on with a doubtful conceit what might befall those three which we had

taken. But when they perceived that we offered them no violence, neither

entered their canoa with any of ours, nor took out of the canoa any

of theirs, they then began to show themselves on the bank's side, and

offered to traffic with us for such things as they had. And as we drew

near, they all stayed; and we came with our barge to the mouth of a

little creek which came from their town into the great river.

As we abode here awhile, our Indian pilot, called Ferdinando, would

needs go ashore to their village to fetch some fruits and to drink of

their artificial wines, and also to see the place and know the lord of

it against another time, and took with him a brother of his which he had

with him in the journey. When they came to the village of these people

the lord of the island offered to lay hands on them, purposing to

have slain them both; yielding for reason that this Indian of ours had

brought a strange nation into their territory to spoil and destroy them.

But the pilot being quick and of a disposed body, slipt their fingers

and ran into the woods, and his brother, being the better footman of the

two, recovered the creek's mouth, where we stayed in our barge, crying

out that his brother was slain. With that we set hands on one of them

that 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 cut

off his head. This old man, being resolved that he should pay the loss

of the other, cried out to those in the woods to save Ferdinando, our

pilot; but they followed him notwithstanding, and hunted after him upon

the foot with their deer-dogs, and with so main a cry that all the woods

echoed with the shout they made. But at the last this poor chased Indian

recovered 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 hap

was that we kept the other old Indian, which we handfasted to redeem our

pilot withal; for, being natural of those rivers, we assured ourselves

that he knew the way better than any stranger could. And, indeed, but

for this chance, I think we had never found the way either to Guiana or

back 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 was

in great doubt which river to take. Those people which dwell in these

broken islands and drowned lands are generally called Tivitivas. There

are of them two sorts; the one called Ciawani, and the other Waraweete.

The great river of Orenoque or Baraquan hath nine branches which fall

out on the north side of his own main mouth. On the south side it hath

seven other fallings into the sea, so it disemboqueth by sixteen arms in

all, 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 at

least 100 leagues, so as the river's mouth is 300 miles wide at his

entrance into the sea, which I take to be far bigger than that of

Amazons. All those that inhabit in the mouth of this river upon the

several north branches are these Tivitivas, of which there are two chief

lords which have continual wars one with the other. The islands which

lie on the right hand are called Pallamos, and the land on the left,

Hororotomaka; and the river by which John Douglas returned within the

land from Amana to Capuri they call Macuri.

These Tivitivas are a very goodly people and very valiant, and have the

most manly speech and most deliberate that ever I heard of what nation

soever. In the summer they have houses on the ground, as in other

places; in the winter they dwell upon the trees, where they build very

artificial towns and villages, as it is written in the Spanish story of

the West Indies that those people do in the low lands near the gulf of

Uraba. For between May and September the river of Orenoque riseth thirty

foot upright, and then are those islands overflown twenty foot high

above the level of the ground, saving some few raised grounds in the

middle of them; and for this cause they are enforced to live in this

manner. They never eat of anything that is set or sown; and as at home

they use neither planting nor other manurance, so when they come abroad

they refuse to feed of aught but of that which nature without labour

bringeth forth. They use the tops of palmitos for bread, and kill deer,

fish, and porks for the rest of their sustenance. They have also many

sorts of fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of birds and

fowls; and if to speak of them were not tedious and vulgar, surely we

saw in those passages of very rare colours and forms not elsewhere to be

found, for as much as I have either seen or read.

Of these people those that dwell upon the branches of Orenoque, called

Capuri, and Macureo, are for the most part carpenters of canoas; for

they make the most and fairest canoas; and sell them into Guiana for

gold and into Trinidad for tabacco, in the excessive taking whereof

they exceed all nations. And notwithstanding the moistness of the air in

which they live, the hardness of their diet, and the great labours they

suffer 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 or

better-favoured people or a more manly. They were wont to make war upon

all nations, and especially on the Cannibals, so as none durst without a

good strength trade by those rivers; but of late they are at peace with

their neighbours, all holding the Spaniards for a common enemy. When

their commanders die they use great lamentation; and when they think

the flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from their bones, then

they take up the carcase again and hang it in the cacique's house that

died, and deck his skull with feathers of all colours, and hang all

his gold plates about the bones of this arms, thighs, and legs. Those

nations which are called Arwacas, which dwell on the south of Orenoque,

of which place and nation our Indian pilot was, are dispersed in many

other 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 of

drinks.

After we departed from the port of these Ciawani we passed up the river

with 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; and

stuck so fast as we thought that even there our discovery had ended, and

that 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, after

we had cast out all her ballast, with tugging and hauling to and fro we

got her afloat and went on. At four days' end we fell into as goodly a

river as ever I beheld, which was called the great Amana, which ran more

directly without windings and turnings than the other. But soon after

the flood of the sea left us; and, being enforced either by main

strength to row against a violent current, or to return as wise as we

went out, we had then no shift but to persuade the companies that it was

but two or three days' work, and therefore desired them to take pains,

every gentleman and others taking their turns to row, and to spell one

the other at the hour's end. Every day we passed by goodly branches of

rivers, some falling from the west, others from the east, into Amana;

but those I leave to the description in the chart of discovery, where

every one shall be named with his rising and descent. When three days

more were overgone, our companies began to despair, the weather being

extreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away the

air, and the current against us every day stronger than other. But we

evermore commanded our pilots to promise an end the next day, and used

it so long as we were driven to assure them from four reaches of the

river to three, and so to two, and so to the next reach. But so long we

laboured that many days were spent, and we driven to draw ourselves to

harder allowance, our bread even at the last, and no drink at all;

and our men and ourselves so wearied and scorched, and doubtful withal

whether we should ever perform it or no, the heat increasing as we drew

towards the line; for we were now in five degrees.

The further we went on, our victual decreasing and the air breeding

great faintness, we grew weaker and weaker, when we had most need of

strength and ability. For hourly the river ran more violently than other

against us, and the barge, wherries, and ship's boat of Captain Gifford

and Captain Caulfield had spent all their provisions; so as we were

brought into despair and discomfort, had we not persuaded all the

company that it was but only one day's work more to attain the land

where we should be relieved of all we wanted, and if we returned, that

we were sure to starve by the way, and that the world would also laugh

us to scorn. On the banks of these rivers were divers sorts of fruits

good to eat, flowers and trees of such variety as were sufficient to

make ten volumes of Herbals; we relieved ourselves many times with the

fruits of the country, and sometimes with fowl and fish. We saw birds of

all colours, some carnation, some crimson, orange-tawny, purple, watchet

(pale blue), and of all other sorts, both simple and mixed, and it was

unto us a great good-passing of the time to behold them, besides the

relief we found by killing some store of them with our fowling-pieces;

without which, having little or no bread, and less drink, but only the

thick 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 redeem

Ferdinando, told us, that if we would enter a branch of a river on the

right hand with our barge and wherries, and leave the galley at anchor

the while in the great river, he would bring us to a town of the

Arwacas, where we should find store of bread, hens, fish, and of the

country wine; and persuaded us, that departing from the galley at noon

we might return ere night. I was very glad to hear this speech, and

presently took my barge, with eight musketeers, Captain Gifford's

wherry, with himself and four musketeers, and Captain Caulfield with

his wherry, and as many; and so we entered the mouth of this river; and

because we were persuaded that it was so near, we took no victual with

us at all. When we had rowed three hours, we marvelled we saw no sign

of 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, we

began to suspect that he led us that way to betray us; for he confessed

that those Spaniards which fled from Trinidad, and also those that

remained with Carapana in Emeria, were joined together in some village

upon that river. But when it grew towards night, and we demanded where

the place was, he told us but four reaches more. When we had rowed four

and four, we saw no sign; and our poor watermen, even heart-broken and

tired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we had now come from the

galley near forty miles.

At the last we determined to hang the pilot; and if we had well known

the way back again by night, he had surely gone. But our own necessities

pleaded sufficiently for his safety; for it was as dark as pitch, and

the river began so to narrow itself, and the trees to hang over from

side to side, as we were driven with arming swords to cut a passage

through those branches that covered the water. We were very desirous to

find this town hoping of a feast, because we made but a short breakfast

aboard 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 return

or go on, we began to doubt, suspecting treason in the pilot more and

more; but the poor old Indian ever assured us that it was but a little

further, but this one turning and that turning; and at the last about

one o'clock after midnight we saw a light, and rowing towards it we

heard the dogs of the village. When we landed we found few people; for

the 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 to

buy women of the Cannibals, who afterwards unfortunately passed by us as

we 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 left

one of his company at the port of Morequito, by whom we understood that

he had brought thirty young women, divers plates of gold, and had great

store of fine pieces of cotton cloth, and cotton beds. In his house we

had good store of bread, fish, hens, and Indian drink, and so rested

that night; and in the morning, after we had traded with such of his

people as came down, we returned towards our galley, and brought with us

some quantity of bread, fish, and hens.

On both sides of this river we passed the most beautiful country that

ever mine eyes beheld; and whereas all that we had seen before was

nothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thorns, here we beheld plains

of twenty miles in length, the grass short and green, and in divers

parts groves of trees by themselves, as if they had been by all the art

and labour in the world so made of purpose; and still as we rowed, the

deer came down feeding by the water's side as if they had been used to

a keeper's call. Upon this river there were great store of fowl, and

of many sorts; we saw in it divers sorts of strange fishes, and of

marvellous bigness; but for lagartos (alligators and caymans) it

exceeded, for there were thousands of those ugly serpents; and the

people call it, for the abundance of them, the River of Lagartos, in

their language. I had a negro, a very proper young fellow, who leaping

out of the galley to swim in the mouth of this river, was in all our

sights taken and devoured with one of those lagartos. In the meanwhile

our companies in the galley thought we had been all lost, for we

promised to return before night; and sent the Lion's Whelp's ship's boat

with Captain Whiddon to follow us up the river. But the next day, after

we had rowed up and down some fourscore miles, we returned, and went on

our way up the great river; and when we were even at the last cast for

want of victuals, Captain Gifford being before the galley and the rest

of the boats, seeking out some place to land upon the banks to make

fire, espied four canoas coming down the river; and with no small joy

caused his men to try the uttermost of their strengths, and after a

while two of the four gave over and ran themselves ashore, every man

betaking himself to the fastness of the woods. The two other lesser

got away, while he landed to lay hold on these; and so turned into some

by-creek, we knew not whither. Those canoas that were taken were loaded

with bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies, which those

Indians, called Arwacas, proposed to carry thither for exchange; but in

the lesser there were three Spaniards, who having heard of the defeat of

their Governor in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, came

away in those canoas; one of them was a cavallero, as the captain of the

Arwacas after told us, another a soldier and the third a refiner.