In the meantime, nothing on the earth could have been more welcome to

us, next unto gold, than the great store of very excellent bread which

we found in these canoas; for now our men cried, "Let us go on, we care

not how far." After that Captain Gifford had brought the two canoas to

the galley, I took my barge and went to the bank's side with a dozen

shot, where the canoas first ran themselves ashore, and landed there,

sending out Captain Gifford and Captain Thyn on one hand and Captain

Caulfield 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 dust

of such ore as he had refined; but in those canoas which escaped there

was a good quantity of ore and gold. I then landed more men, and offered

five hundred pound to what soldier soever could take one of those three

Spaniards that we thought were landed. But our labours were in vain in

that behalf, for they put themselves into one of the small canoas, and

so, while the greater canoas were in taking, they escaped. But seeking

after the Spaniards we found the Arwacas hidden in the woods, which were

pilots for the Spaniards, and rowed their canoas. Of which I kept the

chiefest for a pilot, and carried him with me to Guiana; by whom I

understood where and in what countries the Spaniards had laboured for

gold, though I made not the same known to all. For when the springs

began to break, and the rivers to raise themselves so suddenly as by no

means we could abide the digging of any mine, especially for that the

richest are defended with rocks of hard stones, which we call the white

spar, and that it required both time, men, and instruments fit for such

a work, I thought it best not to hover thereabouts, lest if the same had

been perceived by the company, there would have been by this time many

barks and ships set out, and perchance other nations would also

have gotten of ours for pilots. So as both ourselves might have been

prevented, and all our care taken for good usage of the people been

utterly lost, by those that only respect present profit; and such

violence or insolence offered as the nations which are borderers

would have changed the desire of our love and defence into hatred and

violence. And for any longer stay to have brought a more quantity, which

I hear hath been often objected, whosoever had seen or proved the fury

of that river after it began to arise, and had been a month and odd

days, as we were, from hearing aught from our ships, leaving them meanly

manned 400 miles off, would perchance have turned somewhat sooner than

we did, if all the mountains had been gold, or rich stones. And to say

the truth, all the branches and small rivers which fell into Orenoque

were raised with such speed, as if we waded them over the shoes in the

morning outward, we were covered to the shoulders homeward the very same

day; and to stay to dig our gold with our nails, had been opus laboris

but not ingenii. Such a quantity as would have served our turns we could

not have had, but a discovery of the mines to our infinite disadvantage

we had made, and that could have been the best profit of farther search

or stay; for those mines are not easily broken, nor opened in haste, and

I could have returned a good quantity of gold ready cast if I had not

shot 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, to

the end that none of the people in the passage towards Guiana, or in

Guiana itself, might come to speech with us, persuaded all the nations

that we were men-eaters and cannibals. But when the poor men and women

had seen us, and that we gave them meat, and to every one something or

other which was rare and strange to them, they began to conceive the

deceit and purpose of the Spaniards, who indeed, as they confessed

took from them both their wives and daughters daily . . . But I protest

before 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 their

women, and yet we saw many hundreds, and had many in our power, and of

those very young and excellently favoured, which came among us without

deceit, stark naked. Nothing got us more love amongst them than this

usage; for I suffered not any man to take from any of the nations

so much as a pina (pineapple) or a potato root without giving them

contentment, nor any man so much as to offer to touch any of their wives

or daughters; which course, so contrary to the Spaniards, who tyrannize

over them in all things, drew them to admire her Majesty, whose

commandment I told them it was, and also wonderfully to honour our

nation. But I confess it was a very impatient work to keep the meaner

sort from spoil and stealing when we came to their houses; which because

in all I could not prevent, I caused my Indian interpreter at every

place when we departed, to know of the loss or wrong done, and if aught

were stolen or taken by violence, either the same was restored, and the

party punished in their sight, or else was paid for to their uttermost

demand. They also much wondered at us, after they heard that we had

slain the Spaniards at Trinidad, for they were before resolved that no

nation of Christians durst abide their presence; and they wondered more

when I had made them know of the great overthrow that her Majesty's army

and fleet had given them of late years in their own countries.

After we had taken in this supply of bread, with divers baskets of

roots, which were excellent meat, I gave one of the canoas to the

Arwacas, which belonged to the Spaniards that were escaped; and when I

had dismissed all but the captain, who by the Spaniards was christened

Martin, I sent back in the same canoa the old Ciawani, and Ferdinando,

my first pilot, and gave them both such things as they desired, with

sufficient victual to carry them back, and by them wrote a letter to the

ships, which they promised to deliver, and performed it; and then I went

on, with my new hired pilot, Martin the Arwacan. But the next or second

day after, we came aground again with our galley, and were like to cast

her away, with all our victual and provision, and so lay on the sand one

whole night, and were far more in despair at this time to free her than

before, because we had no tide of flood to help us, and therefore feared

that all our hopes would have ended in mishaps. But we fastened an

anchor upon the land, and with main strength drew her off; and so the

fifteenth day we discovered afar off the mountains of Guiana, to our

great joy, and towards the evening had a slent (push) of a northerly

wind that blew very strong, which brought us in sight of the great river

Orenoque; out of which this river descended wherein we were. We descried

afar off three other canoas as far as we could discern them, after whom

we hastened with our barge and wherries, but two of them passed out of

sight, and the third entered up the great river, on the right hand to

the westward, and there stayed out of sight, thinking that we meant to

take the way eastward towards the province of Carapana; for that way the

Spaniards keep, not daring to go upwards to Guiana, the people in those

parts being all their enemies, and those in the canoas thought us to

have been those Spaniards that were fled from Trinidad, and escaped

killing. And when we came so far down as the opening of that branch into

which they slipped, being near them with our barge and wherries, we

made after them, and ere they could land came within call, and by our

interpreter told them what we were, wherewith they came back willingly

aboard us; and of such fish and tortugas' (turtles) eggs as they had

gathered they gave us, and promised in the morning to bring the lord of

that part with them, and to do us all other services they could. That

night 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, and

ran athwart towards the south, the other two were of Orenoque, which

crossed from the west and ran to the sea towards the east) and landed

upon a fair sand, where we found thousands of tortugas' eggs, which are

very wholesome meat, and greatly restoring; so as our men were now well

filled and highly contented both with the fare, and nearness of the land

of Guiana, which appeared in sight.

In the morning there came down, according to promise, the lord of that

border, called Toparimaca, with some thirty or forty followers, and

brought us divers sorts of fruits, and of his wine, bread, fish, and

flesh, whom we also feasted as we could; at least we drank good Spanish

wine, whereof we had a small quantity in bottles, which above all things

they 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 from

thence some mile and a-half to his town; where some of our captains

caroused of his wine till they were reasonable pleasant, for it is very

strong with pepper, and the juice of divers herbs and fruits digested

and purged. They keep it in great earthen pots of ten or twelve gallons,

very clean and sweet, and are themselves at their meetings and feasts

the greatest carousers and drunkards of the world. When we came to his

town we found two caciques, whereof one was a stranger that had been up

the river in trade, and his boats, people, and wife encamped at the

port where we anchored; and the other was of that country, a follower

of Toparimaca. They lay each of them in a cotton hamaca, which we call

Brazil beds, and two women attending them with six cups, and a little

ladle to fill them out of an earthen pitcher of wine; and so they drank

each of them three of those cups at a time one to the other, and in this

sort they drink drunk at their feasts and meetings.

That cacique that was a stranger had his wife staying at the port where

we anchored, and in all my life I have seldom seen a better favoured

woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of an

excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as herself, tied up again

in pretty knots; and it seemed she stood not in that awe of her husband

as the rest, for she spake and discoursed, and drank among the gentlemen

and captains, and was very pleasant, knowing her own comeliness, and

taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in England so like to

her, as but for the difference of colour, I would have sworn might have

been the same.

The seat of this town of Toparimaca was very pleasant, standing on

a little hill, in an excellent prospect, with goodly gardens a mile

compass round about it, and two very fair and large ponds of excellent

fish adjoining. This town is called Arowocai; the people are of the

nation called Nepoios, and are followers of Carapana. In that place I

saw very aged people, that we might perceive all their sinews and veins

without 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 great

experience and travel, and knew the river most perfectly both by day

and night. And it shall be requisite for any man that passeth it to have

such a pilot; for it is four, five, and six miles over in many places,

and twenty miles in other places, with wonderful eddies and strong

currents, many great islands, and divers shoals, and many dangerous

rocks; and besides upon any increase of wind so great a billow, as we

were sometimes in great peril of drowning in the galley, for the small

boats 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 river

lieth for the most part east and west, even from the sea unto Quito, in

Peru. This river is navigable with barks little less than 1000 miles;

and from the place where we entered it may be sailed up in small

pinnaces to many of the best parts of Nuevo Reyno de Granada and of

Popayan. And from no place may the cities of these parts of the Indies

be so easily taken and invaded as from hence. All that day we sailed up

a branch of that river, having on the left hand a great island, which

they call Assapana, which may contain some five-and-twenty miles in

length, and six miles in breadth, the great body of the river running on

the other side of this island. Beyond that middle branch there is also

another island in the river, called Iwana, which is twice as big as the

Isle of Wight; and beyond it, and between it and the main of Guiana,

runneth a third branch of Orenoque, called Arraroopana. All three are

goodly branches, and all navigable for great ships. I judge the river

in this place to be at least thirty miles broad, reckoning the islands

which divide the branches in it, for afterwards I sought also both the

other branches.

After we reached to the head of the island called Assapana, a little to

the westward on the right hand there opened a river which came from the

north, called Europa, and fell into the great river; and beyond it on

the same side we anchored for that night by another island, six miles

long and two miles broad, which they call Ocaywita. From hence, in

the morning, we landed two Guianians, which we found in the town of

Toparimaca, that came with us; who went to give notice of our coming to

the lord of that country, called Putyma, a follower of Topiawari,

chief lord of Aromaia, who succeeded Morequito, whom (as you have heard

before) Berreo put to death. But his town being far within the land, he

came not unto us that day; so as we anchored again that night near the

banks of another land, of bigness much like the other, which they call

Putapayma, over against which island, on the main land, was a very high

mountain called Oecope. We coveted to anchor rather by these islands

in the river than by the main, because of the tortugas' eggs, which our

people found on them in great abundance; and also because the ground

served better for us to cast our nets for fish, the main banks being for

the 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 the

same blue stone are also divers great mountains which border this river

in many places.

The next morning, towards nine of the clock, we weighed anchor; and

the breeze increasing, we sailed always west up the river, and, after

a while, opening the land on the right side, the country appeared to be

champaign and the banks shewed very perfect red. I therefore sent two

of the little barges with Captain Gifford, and with him Captain Thyn,

Captain Caulfield, my cousin Greenvile, my nephew John Gilbert, Captain

Eynos, Master Edward Porter, and my cousin Butshead Gorges, with some

few soldiers, to march over the banks of that red land and to discover

what manner of country it was on the other side; who at their return

found it all a plain level as far as they went or could discern from

the highest tree they could get upon. And my old pilot, a man of great

travel, brother to the cacique Toparimaca, told me that those were

called the plains of the Sayma, and that the same level reached to

Cumana and Caracas, in the West Indies, which are a hundred and twenty

leagues to the north, and that there inhabited four principal nations.

The first were the Sayma, the next Assawai, the third and greatest

the Wikiri, by whom Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, before mentioned, was

overthrown as he passed with 300 horse from Cumana towards Orenoque in

his enterprise of Guiana. The fourth are called Aroras, and are as black

as negroes, but have smooth hair; and these are very valiant, or rather

desperate, people, and have the most strong poison on their arrows, and

most dangerous, of all nations, of which I will speak somewhat, being a

digression not unnecessary.

There was nothing whereof I was more curious than to find out the true

remedies of these poisoned arrows. For besides the mortality of the

wound they make, the party shot endureth the most insufferable torment

in the world, and abideth a most ugly and lamentable death, sometimes

dying stark mad, sometimes their bowels breaking out of their bellies;

which are presently discoloured as black as pitch, and so unsavory as no

man can endure to cure or to attend them. And it is more strange to

know that in all this time there was never Spaniard, either by gift or

torment, that could attain to the true knowledge of the cure, although

they have martyred and put to invented torture I know not how many

of them. But everyone of these Indians know it not, no, not one among

thousands, but their soothsayers and priests, who do conceal it, and

only 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 quencheth

marvellously the heat of burning fevers, and healeth inward wounds and

broken veins that bleed within the body. But I was more beholding to the

Guianians than any other; for Antonio de Berreo told me that he could

never attain to the knowledge thereof, and yet they taught me the best

way of healing as well thereof as of all other poisons. Some of the

Spaniards have been cured in ordinary wounds of the common poisoned

arrows with the juice of garlic. But this is a general rule for all men

that shall hereafter travel the Indies where poisoned arrows are used,

that they must abstain from drink. For if they take any liquor into

their body, as they shall be marvellously provoked thereunto by drought,

I say, if they drink before the wound be dressed, or soon upon it, there

is no way with them but present death.

And so I will return again to our journey, which for this third day

we finished, and cast anchor again near the continent on the left hand

between two mountains, the one called Aroami and the other Aio. I made

no stay here but till midnight; for I feared hourly lest any rain should

fall, and then it had been impossible to have gone any further up,

notwithstanding that there is every day a very strong breeze and

easterly wind. I deferred the search of the country on Guiana side till

my 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 the

galley got ahead of us, there came for us from the main a small canoa

with 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 Nepoios

went, which came with us from the town of Toparimaca. And so the fifth

day we reached as high up as the province of Aromaia, the country of

Morequito, whom Berreo executed, and anchored to the west of an island

called Murrecotima, ten miles long and five broad. And that night the

cacique Aramiary, to whose town we made our long and hungry voyage out

of 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 to

Morequito, slain by Berreo as aforesaid. The next day following, before

noon, he came to us on foot from his house, which was fourteen English

miles, himself being a hundred and ten years old, and returned on foot

the same day; and with him many of the borderers, with many women

and children, that came to wonder at our nation and to bring us down

victual, 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 the

sun, especially those of Guiana. They brought us, also, store of bread

and of their wine, and a sort of paraquitos no bigger than wrens, and of

all other sorts both small and great. One of them gave me a beast called

by the Spaniards armadillo, which they call cassacam, which seemeth to

be all barred over with small plates somewhat like to a rhinoceros, with

a 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 put

into the ear cureth deafness.

After this old king had rested awhile in a little tent that I caused to

be set up, I began by my interpreter to discourse with him of the death

of Morequito his predecessor, and afterward of the Spaniards; and ere I

went any farther I made him know the cause of my coming thither, whose

servant I was, and that the Queen's pleasure was I should undertake the

voyage for their defence, and to deliver them from the tyranny of the

Spaniards, dilating at large, as I had done before to those of Trinidad,

her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity to all oppressed

nations, with as many of the rest of her beauties and virtues as either

I could express or they conceive. All which being with great admiration

attentively heard and marvellously admired, I began to sound the old man

as touching Guiana and the state thereof, what sort of commonwealth it

was, how governed, of what strength and policy, how far it extended,

and what nations were friends or enemies adjoining, and finally of the

distance, and way to enter the same. He told me that himself and his

people, with all those down the river towards the sea, as far as

Emeria, the province of Carapana, were of Guiana, but that they called

themselves Orenoqueponi, and that all the nations between the river and

those mountains in sight, called Wacarima, were of the same cast and

appellation; and that on the other side of those mountains of Wacarima

there was a large plain (which after I discovered in my return) called

the valley of Amariocapana. In all that valley the people were also of

the ancient Guianians.

I asked what nations those were which inhabited on the further side of

those mountains, beyond the valley of Amariocapana. He answered with a

great sigh (as a man which had inward feeling of the loss of his country

and liberty, especially for that his eldest son was slain in a battle

on that side of the mountains, whom he most entirely loved) that he

remembered in his father's lifetime, when he was very old and himself

a young man, that there came down into that large valley of Guiana a

nation 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, which

colour he expressed by shewing a piece of red wood wherewith my tent was

supported, and that they were called Orejones and Epuremei; that those

had slain and rooted out so many of the ancient people as there were

leaves in the wood upon all the trees, and had now made themselves lords

of all, even to that mountain foot called Curaa, saving only of two

nations, the one called Iwarawaqueri and the other Cassipagotos; and

that in the last battle fought between the Epuremei and the Iwarawaqueri

his eldest son was chosen to carry to the aid of the Iwarawaqueri a

great troop of the Orenoqueponi, and was there slain with all his people

and friends, and that he had now remaining but one son; and farther told

me that those Epuremei had built a great town called Macureguarai at

the 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 the

other, and that therein the great king of the Orejones and Epuremei kept

three thousand men to defend the borders against them, and withal daily

to invade and slay them; but that of late years, since the Christians

offered to invade his territories and those frontiers, they were all

at peace, and traded one with another, saving only the Iwarawaqueri

and those other nations upon the head of the river of Caroli called

Cassipagotos, which we afterwards discovered, each one holding the

Spaniard for a common enemy.

After he had answered thus far, he desired leave to depart, saying that

he had far to go, that he was old and weak, and was every day called for

by death, which was also his own phrase. I desired him to rest with

us that night, but I could not entreat him; but he told me that at my

return from the country above he would again come to us, and in the

meantime provide for us the best he could, of all that his country

yielded. The same night he returned to Orocotona, his own town; so as

he went that day eight-and-twenty miles, the weather being very hot, the

country being situate between four and five degrees of the equinoctial.

This Topiawari is held for the proudest and wisest of all the

Orenoqueponi, 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 judgment

and of so good discourse, that had no help of learning nor breed. The

next morning we also left the port, and sailed westward up to the

river, to view the famous river called Caroli, as well because it

was marvellous of itself, as also for that I understood it led to

the strongest nations of all the frontiers, that were enemies to the

Epuremei, which are subjects to Inga, emperor of Guiana and Manoa. And

that night we anchored at another island called Caiama, of some five or

six 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 of

Morequito, we heard the great roar and fall of the river. But when we

came to enter with our barge and wherries, thinking to have gone up some

forty miles to the nations of the Cassipagotos, we were not able with

a barge of eight oars to row one stone's cast in an hour; and yet the

river 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 the

banks adjoining, and sent off our Orenoquepone which came with us from

Morequito to give knowledge to the nations upon the river of our being

there, and that we desired to see the lords of Canuria, which dwelt

within the province upon that river, making them know that we were

enemies to the Spaniards; for it was on this river side that Morequito

slew the friar, and those nine Spaniards which came from Manoa, the city

of Inga, and took from them 14,000 pesos of gold. So as the next day

there came down a lord or cacique, called Wanuretona, with many people

with him, and brought all store of provisions to entertain us, as the

rest had done. And as I had before made my coming known to Topiawari, so

did I acquaint this cacique therewith, and how I was sent by her

Majesty for the purpose aforesaid, and gathered also what I could of

him touching the estate of Guiana. And I found that those also of Caroli

were 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 on

the head of this river were three mighty nations, which were seated on

a great lake, from whence this river descended, and were called

Cassipagotos, Eparegotos, and Arawagotos (the Purigotos and Arinagotos

are still settled on the upper tributaries of the Caroni river, no such

lake as that mentioned is known to exist); and that all those either

against the Spaniards or the Epuremei would join with us, and that if we

entered the land over the mountains of Curaa we should satisfy ourselves

with gold and all other good things. He told us farther of a nation

called Iwarawaqueri, before spoken of, that held daily war with the

Epuremei that inhabited Macureguarai, and first civil town of Guiana, of

the subjects of Inga, the emperor.

Upon this river one Captain George, that I took with Berreo, told me

that there was a great silver mine, and that it was near the banks of

the said river. But by this time as well Orenoque, Caroli, as all the

rest of the rivers were risen four or five feet in height, so as it was

not 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 foot

to another great town called Capurepana, belonging to a cacique called

Haharacoa, that was a nephew to old Topiawari, king of Aromaia, our

chiefest friend, because this town and province of Capurepana adjoined

to Macureguarai, which was a frontier town of the empire. And the

meanwhile myself with Captain Gifford, Captain Caulfield, Edward

Hancock, and some half-a-dozen shot marched overland to view the strange

overfalls of the river of Caroli, which roared so far off; and also to

see the plains adjoining, and the rest of the province of Canuri. I sent

also Captain Whiddon, William Connock, and some eight shot with them, to

see if they could find any mineral stone alongst the river's side. When

we were come to the tops of the first hills of the plains adjoining

to the river, we beheld that wonderful breach of waters which ran down

Caroli; and might from that mountain see the river how it ran in three

parts, above twenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelve

overfalls 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 if

it had been all covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some

places we took it at the first for a smoke that had risen over some

great town. For mine own part I was well persuaded from thence to have

returned, being a very ill footman; but the rest were all so desirous to

go near the said strange thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little

and little, till we came into the next valley, where we might better

discern the same. I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lively

prospects; hills so raised here and there over the valleys; the river

winding into divers branches; the plains adjoining without bush or

stubble, all fair green grass; the ground of hard sand, easy to march

on, either for horse or foot; the deer crossing in every path; the birds

towards the evening singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes;

cranes and herons of white, crimson, and carnation, perching in the

river's side; the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind; and every

stone that we stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by his

complexion. Your Lordship shall see of many sorts, and I hope some of

them cannot be bettered under the sun; and yet we had no means but with

our daggers and fingers to tear them out here and there, the rocks being

most hard of that mineral spar aforesaid, which is like a flint, and is

altogether as hard or harder, and besides the veins lie a fathom or

two deep in the rocks. But we wanted all things requisite save only our

desires and good will to have performed more if it had pleased God. To

be short, when both our companies returned, each of them brought also

several sorts of stones that appeared very fair, but were such as they

found 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 or

experience kept all that glistered, and would not be persuaded but it

was rich because of the lustre; and brought of those, and of marcasite

withal, from Trinidad, and have delivered of those stones to be tried

in many places, and have thereby bred an opinion that all the rest is of

the same. Yet some of these stones I shewed afterward to a Spaniard

of the Caracas, who told me that it was El Madre del Oro, that is, the

mother 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 or

my country with imaginations; neither am I so far in love with that

lodging, watching, care, peril, diseases, ill savours, bad fare, and

many other mischiefs that accompany these voyages, as to woo myself

again into any of them, were I not assured that the sun covereth not

so much riches in any part of the earth. Captain Whiddon, and our

chirurgeon, Nicholas Millechamp, brought me a kind of stones like

sapphires; what they may prove I know not. I shewed them to some of the

Orenoqueponi, and they promised to bring me to a mountain that had of

them very large pieces growing diamond-wise; whether it be crystal of

the mountain, Bristol diamond, or sapphire, I do not yet know, but

I hope the best; sure I am that the place is as likely as those from

whence all the rich stones are brought, and in the same height or very

near. On the left hand of this river Caroli are seated those nations

which I called Iwarawaqueri before remembered, which are enemies to the

Epuremei; and on the head of it, adjoining to the great lake Cassipa,

are situated those other nations which also resist Inga, and the

Epuremei, called Cassipagotos, Eparegotos, and Arawagotos. I farther

understood that this lake of Cassipa is so large, as it is above one

day's journey for one of their canoas, to cross, which may be some forty

miles; and that thereinto fall divers rivers, and that great store of

grains of gold are found in the summer time when the lake falleth by the

banks, 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 Orenoque

farther west, making all that land between Caroli and Arui an island;

which is likewise a most beautiful country. Next unto Arui there are two

rivers Atoica and Caura, and on that branch which is called Caura are

a nation of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders; which

though it may be thought a mere fable, yet for mine own part I am

resolved it is true, because every child in the provinces of Aromaia and

Canuri affirm the same. They are called Ewaipanoma; they are reported

to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle

of their breasts, and that a long train of hair groweth backward between

their shoulders. The son of Topiawari, which I brought with me into

England, told me that they were the most mighty men of all the land, and

use bows, arrows, and clubs thrice as big as any of Guiana, or of the

Orenoqueponi; and that one of the Iwarawaqueri took a prisoner of them

the year before our arrival there, and brought him into the borders of

Aromaia, his father's country. And farther, when I seemed to doubt of

it, he told me that it was no wonder among them; but that they were as

great a nation and as common as any other in all the provinces, and had

of late years slain many hundreds of his father's people, and of other

nations their neighbours. But it was not my chance to hear of them till

I was come away; and if I had but spoken one word of it while I was

there I might have brought one of them with me to put the matter out of

doubt. Such a nation was written of by Mandeville, whose reports

were holden for fables many years; and yet since the East Indies were

discovered, we find his relations true of such things as heretofore were

held incredible (Mandeville, or the author who assumed this name, placed

his headless men in the East Indian Archipelago, the fable is borrowed

from older writers, Herodotus &c). Whether it be true or no, the matter

is not great, neither can there be any profit in the imagination; for

mine own part I saw them not, but I am resolved that so many people did

not all combine or forethink to make the report.

When I came to Cumana in the West Indies afterwards by chance I spake

with 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 west

as Caroli, the first question he asked me was, whether I had seen any of

the Ewaipanoma, which are those without heads. Who being esteemed a most

honest man of his word, and in all things else, told me that he had

seen many of them; I may not name him, because it may be for his

disadvantage, but he is well known to Monsieur Moucheron's son of

London, and to Peter Moucheron, merchant, of the Flemish ship that was

there in trade; who also heard, what he avowed to be true, of those

people.

The fourth river to the west of Caroli is Casnero: which falleth into

the Orenoque on this side of Amapaia. And that river is greater than

Danubius, or any of Europe: it riseth on the south of Guiana from

the mountains which divide Guiana from Amazons, and I think it to be

navigable many hundred miles. But we had no time, means, nor season of

the year, to search those rivers, for the causes aforesaid, the winter

being come upon us; although the winter and summer as touching cold and

heat differ not, neither do the trees ever sensibly lose their leaves,

but have always fruit either ripe or green, and most of them both

blossoms, leaves, ripe fruit, and green, at one time: but their winter

only consisteth of terrible rains, and overflowing of the rivers, with

many great storms and gusts, thunder and lightnings, of which we had our

fill ere we returned.

On the north side, the first river that falleth into the Orenoque is

Cari. Beyond it, on the same side is the river of Limo. Between these

two is a great nation of Cannibals, and their chief town beareth the

name of the river, and is called Acamacari. At this town is a continual

market of women for three or four hatchets apiece; they are bought by

the Arwacas, and by them sold into the West Indies. To the west of Limo

is the river Pao, beyond it Caturi, beyond that Voari, and Capuri (the

Apure river), which falleth out of the great river of Meta, by which

Berreo descended from Nuevo Reyno de Granada. To the westward of Capuri

is the province of Amapaia, where Berreo wintered and had so many of his

people poisoned with the tawny water of the marshes of the Anebas. Above

Amapaia, toward Nuevo Reyno, fall in Meto, Pato and Cassanar. To the

west of those, towards the provinces of the Ashaguas and Catetios, are

the rivers of Beta, Dawney, and Ubarro; and toward the frontier of Peru

are the provinces of Thomebamba, and Caxamalca. Adjoining to Quito in

the north side of Peru are the rivers of Guiacar and Goauar; and on the

other side of the said mountains the river of Papamene which descendeth

into Maranon or Amazons, passing through the province Motilones,

where Don Pedro de Orsua, who was slain by the traitor Aguirre before

rehearsed, built his brigandines, when he sought Guiana by the way of

Amazons.

Between Dawney and Beta lieth a famous island in Orenoque (now called

Baraquan, for above Meta it is not known by the name of Orenoque) which

is called Athule (cataract of Ature); beyond which ships of burden

cannot 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 but

tedious, and therefore I will leave the rest to the description. This

river of Orenoque is navigable for ships little less than 1,000 miles,

and for lesser vessels near 2,000. By it, as aforesaid, Peru, Nuevo

Reyno and Popayan may be invaded: it also leadeth to the great empire of

Inga, and to the provinces of Amapaia and Anebas, which abound in gold.

His branches of Casnero, Manta, Caura descend from the middle land and

valley which lieth between the easter province of Peru and Guiana; and

it falls into the sea between Maranon and Trinidad in two degrees and

a half. All of which your honours shall better perceive in the general

description of Guiana, Peru, Nuevo Reyno, the kingdom of Popayan, and

Rodas, with the province of Venezuela, to the bay of Uraba, behind

Cartagena, westward, and to Amazons southward. While we lay at anchor on

the coast of Canuri, and had taken knowledge of all the nations upon

the head and branches of this river, and had found out so many several

people, which were enemies to the Epuremei and the new conquerors, I

thought it time lost to linger any longer in that place, especially for

that the fury of Orenoque began daily to threaten us with dangers in our

return. For no half day passed but the river began to rage and overflow

very fearfully, and the rains came down in terrible showers, and gusts

in great abundance; and withal our men began to cry out for want of

shift, for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that which

he ware on his back, and that was throughly washed on his body for the

most part ten times in one day; and we had now been well-near a month

every day passing to the westward farther and farther from our ships.

We therefore turned towards the east, and spent the rest of the time

in discovering the river towards the sea, which we had not viewed, and

which was most material.

The next day following we left the mouth of Caroli, and arrived again at

the port of Morequito where we were before; for passing down the stream

we went without labour, and against the wind, little less than a hundred

miles a day. As soon as I came to anchor, I sent away one for old

Topiawari, with whom I much desired to have further conference, and

also to deal with him for some one of his country to bring with us into

England, 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 hours

after my messenger came to him, he arrived also, and with him such a

rabble of all sorts of people, and every one loaden with somewhat, as if

it had been a great market or fair in England; and our hungry companies

clustered thick and threefold among their baskets, every one laying hand

on what he liked. After he had rested awhile in my tent, I shut out all

but ourselves and my interpreter, and told him that I knew that both the

Epuremei and the Spaniards were enemies to him, his country and nations:

that the one had conquered Guiana already, and the other sought to

regain the same from them both; and therefore I desired him to instruct

me 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 an

answer to this effect: first, that he could not perceive that I meant

to go onward towards the city of Manoa, for neither the time of the year

served, neither could he perceive any sufficient numbers for such an

enterprise. And if I did, I was sure with all my company to be buried

there, for the emperor was of that strength, as that many times so many

men more were too few. Besides, he gave me this good counsel and advised

me to hold it in mind (as for himself, he knew he could not live till

my return), that I should not offer by any means hereafter to invade the

strong parts of Guiana without the help of all those nations which were

also their enemies; for that it was impossible without those, either to

be conducted, to be victualled, or to have aught carried with us, our

people 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 meat

and furniture. For he remembered that in the plains of Macureguarai

three hundred Spaniards were overthrown, who were tired out, and had

none of the borderers to their friends; but meeting their enemies as

they passed the frontier, were environed on all sides, and the people

setting the long dry grass on fire, smothered them, so as they had no

breath to fight, nor could discern their enemies for the great smoke. He

told 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 of

the Epuremei, and the first town of apparelled and rich people; and that

all those plates of gold which were scattered among the borderers and

carried to other nations far and near, came from the said Macureguarai

and 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. I

asked him whether he thought that those companies that I had there with

me were sufficient to take that town or no; he told me that he thought

they were. I then asked him whether he would assist me with guides, and

some companies of his people to join with us; he answered that he would

go himself with all the borderers, if the rivers did remain fordable,

upon this condition, that I would leave with him till my return again

fifty soldiers, which he undertook to victual. I answered that I had not

above 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 their

defence, they should be in danger of the Spaniards in my absence, who

I knew would use the same measures towards mine that I offered them

at Trinidad. And although upon the motion Captain Caulfield, Captain

Greenvile, my nephew John Gilbert and divers others were desirous to

stay, yet I was resolved that they must needs have perished. For Berreo

expected daily a supply out of Spain, and looked also hourly for his son

to come down from Nuevo Reyno de Granada, with many horse and foot, and

had 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 of

powder, 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 such

a company, he then desired me to forbear him and his country for that

time; for he assured me that I should be no sooner three days from the

coast but those Epuremei would invade him, and destroy all the remain of

his people and friends, if he should any way either guide us or assist

us against them. He further alleged that the Spaniards sought his death;

and as they had already murdered his nephew Morequito, lord of that

province, so they had him seventeen days in a chain before he was king

of the country, and led him like a dog from place to place until he had

paid an hundred plates of gold and divers chains of spleen-stones for

his ransom. And now, since he became owner of that province, that they

had many times laid wait to take him, and that they would be now more

vehement when they should understand of his conference with the English.

_And because_, said he, _they would the better displant me, if they

cannot lay hands on me, they have gotten a nephew of mine called

Eparacano, whom they have christened Don Juan, and his son Don Pedro,

whom they have also apparelled and armed, by whom they seek to make a

party against me in mine own country. He also hath taken to wife one

Louiana, of a strong family, which are borderers and neighbours; and

myself now being old and in the hands of death am not able to travel

nor to shift as when I was of younger years._ He therefore prayed us to

defer it till the next year, when he would undertake to draw in all the

borderers to serve us, and then, also, it would be more seasonable to

travel; for at this time of the year we should not be able to pass any

river, the waters were and would be so grown ere our return.

He farther told me that I could not desire so much to invade

Macureguarai and the rest of Guiana but that the borderers would be more

vehement than I. For he yielded for a chief cause that in the wars with

the Epuremei they were spoiled of their women, and that their wives and

daughters were taken from them; so as for their own parts they desired

nothing of the gold or treasure for their labours, but only to recover

women from the Epuremei. For he farther complained very sadly, as it had

been a matter of great consequence, that whereas they were wont to have

ten or twelve wives, they were now enforced to content themselves

with three or four, and that the lords of the Epuremei had fifty or a

hundred. And in truth they war more for women than either for gold or

dominion. For the lords of countries desire many children of their own

bodies to increase their races and kindreds, for in those consist their

greatest trust and strength. Divers of his followers afterwards desired

me to make haste again, that they might sack the Epuremei, and I asked

them, of what? They answered, Of their women for us, and their gold for

you. For the hope of those many of women they more desire the war than

either for gold or for the recovery of their ancient territories. For

what between the subjects of Inga and the Spaniards, those frontiers are

grown thin of people; and also great numbers are fled to other nations

farther off for fear of the Spaniards.

After I received this answer of the old man, we fell into consideration

whether it had been of better advice to have entered Macureguarai, and

to have begun a war upon Inga at this time, yea, or no, if the time of

the year and all things else had sorted. For mine own part, as we were

not able to march it for the rivers, neither had any such strength as

was requisite, and durst not abide the coming of the winter, or to

tarry any longer from our ships, I thought it were evil counsel to have

attempted it at that time, although the desire for gold will answer many

objections. But it would have been, in mine opinion, an utter overthrow

to the enterprise, if the same should be hereafter by her Majesty

attempted. For then, whereas now they have heard we were enemies to the

Spaniards and were sent by her Majesty to relieve them, they would as

good cheap have joined with the Spaniards at our return, as to have

yielded 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 desire

gold, 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 will

rather submit themselves to her obedience than to the Spaniards, of

whose cruelty both themselves and the borderers have already tasted. And

therefore, till I had known her Majesty's pleasure, I would rather have

lost the sack of one or two towns, although they might have been very

profitable, than to have defaced or endangered the future hope of so

many millions, and the great good and rich trade which England may be

possessed of thereby. I am assured now that they will all die, even to

the last man, against the Spaniards in hope of our succour and return.

Whereas, otherwise, if I had either laid hands on the borderers or

ransomed the lords, as Berreo did, or invaded the subjects of Inga, I

know all had been lost for hereafter.

After that I had resolved Topiawari, lord of Aromaia, that I could not

at this time leave with him the companies he desired, and that I was

contented to forbear the enterprise against the Epuremei till the next

year, he freely gave me his only son to take with me into England; and

hoped that though he himself had but a short time to live, yet that by

our means his son should be established after his death. And I left with

him one Francis Sparrow, a servant of Captain Gifford, who was desirous

to tarry, and could describe a country with his pen, and a boy of mine

called Hugh Goodwin, to learn the language. I after asked the manner how

the Epuremei wrought those plates of gold, and how they could melt it

out of the stone. He told me that the most of the gold which they made

in plates and images was not severed from the stone, but that on the

lake of Manoa, and in a multitude of other rivers, they gathered it in

grains of perfect gold and in pieces as big as small stones, and they

put it to a part of copper, otherwise they could not work it; and that

they used a great earthen pot with holes round about it, and when they

had mingled the gold and copper together they fastened canes to the

holes, and so with the breath of men they increased the fire till the

metal ran, and then they cast it into moulds of stone and clay, and so

make those plates and images. I have sent your honours of two sorts such

as I could by chance recover, more to shew the manner of them than

for 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 gave

among them many more pieces of gold than I received, of the new money of

twenty shillings with her Majesty's picture, to wear, with promise that

they would become her servants thenceforth.

I have also sent your honours of the ore, whereof I know some is as

rich as the earth yieldeth any, of which I know there is sufficient, if

nothing else were to be hoped for. But besides that we were not able to

tarry and search the hills, so we had neither pioneers, bars, sledges,

nor wedges of iron to break the ground, without which there is no

working in mines. But we saw all the hills with stones of the colour

of gold and silver, and we tried them to be no marcasite, and therefore

such as the Spaniards call El madre del oro or "the mother of gold,"

which is an undoubted assurance of the general abundance; and myself saw

the outside of many mines of the spar, which I know to be the same that

all covet in this world, and of those more than I will speak of.

Having learned what I could in Canuri and Aromaia, and received a

faithful promise of the principallest of those provinces to become

servants to her Majesty, and to resist the Spaniards if they made any

attempt in our absence, and that they would draw in the nations about

the lake of Cassipa and those of Iwarawaqueri, I then parted from old

Topiawari, and received his son for a pledge between us, and left with

him two of ours as aforesaid. To Francis Sparrow I gave instructions

to 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 the

great city of Manoa. Which being done, we weighed anchor and coasted the

river on Guiana side, because we came upon the north side, by the lawns

of the Saima and Wikiri.

There came with us from Aromaia a cacique called Putijma, that commanded

the province of Warapana, which Putijma slew the nine Spaniards upon

Caroli before spoken of; who desired us to rest in the port of his

country, promising to bring us unto a mountain adjoining to his town

that had stones of the colour of gold, which he performed. And after we

had rested there one night I went myself in the morning with most of the

gentlemen of my company over-land towards the said mountain, marching

by a river's side called Mana, leaving on the right hand a town

called Tuteritona, standing in the province of Tarracoa, of which

Wariaaremagoto is principal. Beyond it lieth another town towards the

south, in the valley of Amariocapana, which beareth the name of the said

valley; whose plains stretch themselves some sixty miles in length, east

and west, as fair ground and as beautiful fields as any man hath ever

seen, 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 in

every lake and river the like abundance of fish and fowl; of which

Irraparragota is lord.

From the river of Mana we crossed another river in the said beautiful

valley called Oiana, and rested ourselves by a clear lake which lay in

the middle of the said Oiana; and one of our guides kindling us fire

with two sticks, we stayed awhile to dry our shirts, which with the heat

hung very wet and heavy on our shoulders. Afterwards we sought the ford

to pass over towards the mountain called Iconuri, where Putijma foretold

us of the mine. In this lake we saw one of the great fishes, as big as

a wine pipe, which they call manati, being most excellent and wholesome

meat. But after I perceived that to pass the said river would require

half-a-day's march more, I was not able myself to endure it, and

therefore I sent Captain Keymis with six shot to go on, and gave him

order 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 a

river called Cumaca, where I promised to meet him again, Putijma himself

promising also to be his guide. And as they marched, they left the

towns of Emperapana and Capurepana on the right hand, and marched from

Putijma's house, down the said valley of Amariocapana; and we returning

the same day to the river's side, saw by the way many rocks like unto

gold ore, and on the left hand a round mountain which consisted of

mineral 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, those

shall be better expressed in the description, with the mountains of

Aio, Ara, and the rest, which are situate in the provinces of Parino and

Carricurrina. When we were come as far down as the land called Ariacoa,

where Orenoque divideth itself into three great branches, each of them

being most goodly rivers, I sent away Captain Henry Thyn, and Captain

Greenvile with the galley, the nearest way, and took with me Captain

Gifford, Captain Caulfield, Edward Porter, and Captain Eynos with mine

own barge and the two wherries, and went down that branch of Orenoque

which is called Cararoopana, which leadeth towards Emeria, the province

of Carapana, and towards the east sea, as well to find out Captain

Keymis, whom I had sent overland, as also to acquaint myself

with Carapana, who is one of the greatest of all the lords of the

Orenoqueponi. And when I came to the river of Cumaca, to which Putijma

promised to conduct Captain Keymis, I left Captain Eynos and Master

Porter in the said river to expect his coming, and the rest of us rowed

down the stream towards Emeria.

In this branch called Cararoopana were also many goodly islands, some

of six miles long, some of ten, and some of twenty. When it grew towards

sunset, we entered a branch of a river that fell into Orenoque, called

Winicapora; where I was informed of the mountain of crystal, to which in

truth for the length of the way, and the evil season of the year, I was

not able to march, nor abide any longer upon the journey. We saw it afar

off; 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 side

of the mountain, but rusheth over the top of it, and falleth to the

ground with so terrible a noise and clamour, as if a thousand great

bells were knocked one against another. I think there is not in the

world so strange an overfall, nor so wonderful to behold. Berreo told me

that there were diamonds and other precious stones on it, and that they

shined very far off; but what it hath I know not, neither durst he or

any of his men ascend to the top of the said mountain, those people

adjoining being his enemies, as they were, and the way to it so

impassable.

Upon this river of Winicapora we rested a while, and from thence marched

into the country to a town called after the name of the river, whereof

the captain was one Timitwara, who also offered to conduct me to the top

of the said mountain called Wacarima. But when we came in first to the

house 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 to

another without rest. We that were weary and hot with marching were glad

of the plenty, though a small quantity satisfied us, their drink being

very 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 us

all the lords of the country, with all such kind of victual as the place

yielded, and with their delicate wine of pinas, and with abundance

of hens and other provisions, and of those stones which we call

spleen-stones. We understood by these chieftains of Winicapora that

their 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 ten

Spaniards which lay at his house that we would destroy him and his

country. But after these caciques of Winicapora and Saporatona his

followers perceived our purpose, and saw that we came as enemies to the

Spaniards 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 assured

us that Carapana would be as ready to serve us as any of the lords of

the provinces which we had passed; and that he durst do no other till

this day but entertain the Spaniards, his country lying so directly in

their way, and next of all other to any entrance that should be made in

Guiana on that side. And they further assured us, that it was not for

fear of our coming that he was removed, but to be acquitted of the

Spaniards or any other that should come hereafter. For the province of

Cairoma is situate at the mountain foot, which divideth the plains of

Guiana from the countries of the Orenoqueponi; by means whereof if

any should come in our absence into his towns, he would slip over

the mountains into the plains of Guiana among the Epuremei, where the

Spaniards durst not follow him without great force. But in mine opinion,

or rather I assure myself, that Carapana being a notable wise and

subtle fellow, a man of one hundred years of age and therefore of great

experience, is removed to look on, and if he find that we return strong

he 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, or

to seek any farther of this old fox; and therefore from the river of

Waricapana, which lieth at the entrance of Emeria, we returned again,

and left to the eastward those four rivers which fall from the mountains

of Emeria into Orenoque, which are Waracayari, Coirama, Akaniri,

and Iparoma. Below those four are also these branches and mouths of

Orenoque, 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 land

between 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 wearisome

way back from the borders of Emeria, to recover up again to the head of

the river Carerupana, by which we descended, and where we parted

from the galley, which I directed to take the next way to the port of

Toparimaca, by which we entered first.

All the night it was stormy and dark, and full of thunder and great

showers, so as we were driven to keep close by the banks in our small

boats, being all heartily afraid both of the billow and terrible current

of the river. By the next morning we recovered the mouth of the river

of Cumaca, where we left Captain Eynos and Edward Porter to attend the

coming of Captain Keymis overland; but when we entered the same, they

had heard no news of his arrival, which bred in us a great doubt what

might 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 took

them aboard us, and took our leave of Putijma, their guide, who of all

others most lamented our departure, and offered to send his son with us

into England, if we could have stayed till he had sent back to his

town. But our hearts were cold to behold the great rage and increase of

Orenoque, and therefore departed, and turned toward the west, till we

had recovered the parting of the three branches aforesaid, that we might

put down the stream after the galley.

The next day we landed on the island of Assapano, which divideth the

river from that branch by which we sent down to Emeria, and there

feasted ourselves with that beast which is called armadillo, presented

unto us before at Winicapora. And the day following, we recovered

the galley at anchor at the port of Toparimaca, and the same evening

departed with very foul weather, and terrible thunder and showers, for

the winter was come on very far. The best was, we went no less than 100

miles a day down the river; but by the way we entered it was impossible

to return, for that the river of Amana, being in the bottom of the bay

of Guanipa, cannot be sailed back by any means, both the breeze and

current of the sea were so forcible. And therefore we followed a branch

of Orenoque called Capuri, which entered into the sea eastward of our

ships, to the end we might bear with them before the wind; and it was

not without need, for we had by that way as much to cross of the main

sea, 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 or

name any of the rivers, islands, or villages of the Tivitivas, which

dwell on trees; we will leave all those to the general map. And to be

short, when we were arrived at the sea-side, then grew our greatest

doubt, and the bitterest of all our journey forepassed; for I protest

before God, that we were in a most desperate estate. For the same night

which we anchored in the mouth of the river of Capuri, where it falleth

into the sea, there arose a mighty storm, and the river's mouth was at

least a league broad, so as we ran before night close under the land

with our small boats, and brought the galley as near as we could. But

she had as much ado to live as could be, and there wanted little of her

sinking, and all those in her; for mine own part, I confess I was very

doubtful which way to take, either to go over in the pestered (crowded)

galley, there being but six foot water over the sands for two leagues

together, and that also in the channel, and she drew five; or to

adventure in so great a billow, and in so doubtful weather, to cross the

seas in my barge. The longer we tarried the worse it was, and therefore

I took Captain Gifford, Captain Caulfield, and my cousin Greenvile into

my barge; and after it cleared up about midnight we put ourselves

to God's keeping, and thrust out into the sea, leaving the galley at

anchor, who durst not adventure but by daylight. And so, being all very

sober and melancholy, one faintly cheering another to shew courage, it

pleased God that the next day about nine o'clock, we descried the island

of Trinidad; and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore

till we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than which

there was never to us a more joyful sight.

Now that it hath pleased God to send us safe to our ships, it is time to

leave Guiana to the sun, whom they worship, and steer away towards the

north. I will, therefore, in a few words finish the discovery thereof.

Of the several nations which we found upon this discovery I will once

again make repetition, and how they are affected. At our first entrance

into Amana, which is one of the outlets of Orenoque, we left on the

right hand of us in the bottom of the bay, lying directly against

Trinidad, a nation of inhuman Cannibals, which inhabit the rivers of

Guanipa and Berbeese. In the same bay there is also a third river, which

is called Areo, which riseth on Paria side towards Cumana, and that

river is inhabited with the Wikiri, whose chief town upon the said river

is Sayma. In this bay there are no more rivers but these three before

rehearsed and the four branches of Amana, all which in the winter thrust

so great abundance of water into the sea, as the same is taken up fresh

two or three leagues from the land. In the passages towards Guiana, that

is, in all those lands which the eight branches of Orenoque fashion into

islands, there are but one sort of people, called Tivitivas, but of two

castes, 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, which

standeth in Aromaia, and all those in the valley of Amariocapana are

called Orenoqueponi, and did obey Morequito and are now followers of

Topiawari. Upon the river of Caroli are the Canuri, which are governed

by a woman who is inheritrix of that province; who came far off to see

our nation, and asked me divers questions of her Majesty, being much

delighted with the discourse of her Majesty's greatness, and wondering

at such reports as we truly made of her Highness' many virtues. And

upon the head of Caroli and on the lake of Cassipa are the three

strong nations of the Cassipagotos. Right south into the land are the

Capurepani and Emparepani, and beyond those, adjoining to Macureguarai,

the first city of Inga, are the Iwarawakeri. All these are professed

enemies to the Spaniards, and to the rich Epuremei also. To the west of

Caroli are divers nations of Cannibals and of those Ewaipanoma without

heads. Directly west are the Amapaias and Anebas, which are also

marvellous rich in gold. The rest towards Peru we will omit. On the

north of Orenoque, between it and the West Indies, are the Wikiri,

Saymi, and the rest before spoken of, all mortal enemies to the

Spaniards. On the south side of the main mouth of Orenoque are the

Arwacas; and beyond them, the Cannibals; and to the south of them, the

Amazons.

To make mention of the several beasts, birds, fishes, fruits, flowers,

gums, sweet woods, and of their several religions and customs, would for

the first require as many volumes as those of Gesnerus, and for the

next another bundle of Decades. The religion of the Epuremei is the same

which the Ingas, emperors of Peru, used, which may be read in Cieza and

other Spanish stories; how they believe the immortality of the soul,

worship the sun, and bury with them alive their best beloved wives and

treasure, as they likewise do in Pegu in the East Indies, and other

places. The Orenoqueponi bury not their wives with them, but their

jewels, hoping to enjoy them again. The Arwacas dry the bones of their

lords, and their wives and friends drink them in powder. In the graves

of the Peruvians the Spaniards found their greatest abundance of

treasure. The like, also, is to be found among these people in every

province. They have all many wives, and the lords five-fold to the

common sort. Their wives never eat with their husbands, nor among

the men, but serve their husbands at meals and afterwards feed by

themselves. Those that are past their younger years make all their bread

and drink, and work their cotton-beds, and do all else of service and

labour; for the men do nothing but hunt, fish, play, and drink, when

they are out of the wars.

I will enter no further into discourse of their manners, laws, and

customs. And because I have not myself seen the cities of Inga I cannot

avow on my credit what I have heard, although it be very likely that the

emperor Inga hath built and erected as magnificent palaces in Guiana as

his ancestors did in Peru; which were for their riches and rareness most

marvellous, and exceeding all in Europe, and, I think, of the world,

China excepted, which also the Spaniards, which I had, assured me to be

true, as also the nations of the borderers, who, being but savages to

those 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 Amariocapana

which had buried with him a little before our arrival a chair of gold

most curiously wrought, which was made either in Macureguarai adjoining

or in Manoa. But if we should have grieved them in their religion at

the first, before they had been taught better, and have digged up their

graves, we had lost them all. And therefore I held my first resolution,

that her Majesty should either accept or refuse the enterprise ere

anything should be done that might in any sort hinder the same. And if

Peru had so many heaps of gold, whereof those Ingas were princes, and

that they delighted so much therein, no doubt but this which now liveth

and reigneth in Manoa hath the same humour, and, I am assured, hath

more abundance of gold within his territory than all Peru and the West

Indies.

For the rest, which myself have seen, I will promise these things that

follow, which I know to be true. Those that are desirous to discover and

to see many nations may be satisfied within this river, which bringeth

forth so many arms and branches leading to several countries and

provinces, above 2,000 miles east and west and 800 miles south

and north, and of these the most either rich in gold or in other

merchandises. The common soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay

himself, instead of pence, with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas

he breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and penury. Those

commanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance shall find

there more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden

images, more sepulchres filled with treasure, than either Cortes found

in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru. And the shining glory of this conquest

will 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. It

hath a kind of beast called cama or anta (tapir), as big as an English

beef, and in great plenty. To speak of the several sorts of every kind I

fear would be troublesome to the reader, and therefore I will omit them,

and conclude that both for health, good air, pleasure, and riches, I am

resolved it cannot be equalled by any region either in the east or west.

Moreover the country is so healthful, as of an hundred persons and

more, which lay without shift most sluttishly, and were every day almost

melted with heat in rowing and marching, and suddenly wet again with

great showers, and did eat of all sorts of corrupt fruits, and made

meals of fresh fish without seasoning, of tortugas, of lagartos or

crocodiles, and of all sorts good and bad, without either order or

measure, and besides lodged in the open air every night, we lost not any

one, nor had one ill-disposed to my knowledge; nor found any calentura

or other of those pestilent diseases which dwell in all hot regions, and

so near the equinoctial line.

Where there is store of gold it is in effect needless to remember other

commodities for trade. But it hath, towards the south part of the river,

great quantities of brazil-wood, and divers berries that dye a most

perfect crimson and carnation; and for painting, all France, Italy, or

the East Indies yield none such. For the more the skin is washed, the

fairer the colour appeareth, and with which even those brown and

tawny women spot themselves and colour their cheeks. All places yield

abundance of cotton, of silk, of balsamum, and of those kinds most

excellent and never known in Europe, of all sorts of gums, of Indian

pepper; and what else the countries may afford within the land we know

not, neither had we time to abide the trial and search. The soil besides

is 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 wind

in six weeks, and in the like time back again; and by the way neither

lee-shore, enemies' coast, rocks, nor sands. All which in the voyages to

the West Indies and all other places we are subject unto; as the channel

of Bahama, coming from the West Indies, cannot well be passed in the

winter, and when it is at the best, it is a perilous and a fearful

place; the rest of the Indies for calms and diseases very troublesome,

and the sea about the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder, lightning, and

storms.

This very year (1595) there were seventeen sail of Spanish ships lost

in the channel of Bahama, and the great Philip, like to have sunk at the

Bermudas, was put back to St. Juan de Puerto Rico; and so it falleth out

in that navigation every year for the most part. Which in this voyage

are not to be feared; for the time of year to leave England is best

in July, and the summer in Guiana is in October, November, December,

January, February, and March, and then the ships may depart thence in

April, and so return again into England in June. So as they shall never

be subject to winter weather, either coming, going, or staying there:

which, for my part, I take to be one of the greatest comforts and

encouragements that can be thought on, having, as I have done, tasted

in this voyage by the West Indies so many calms, so much heat, such

outrageous gusts, such weather, and contrary winds.

To conclude, Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never

sacked, 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 have

not been opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledges, nor their

images pulled down out of their temples. It hath never been entered by

any army of strength, and never conquered or possessed by any Christian

prince. It is besides so defensible, that if two forts be builded in

one of the provinces which I have seen, the flood setteth in so near the

bank, where the channel also lieth, that no ship can pass up but within

a pike's length of the artillery, first of the one, and afterwards of

the other. Which two forts will be a sufficient guard both to the empire

of Inga, and to an hundred other several kingdoms, lying within the said

river, even to the city of Quito in Peru.

There is therefore great difference between the easiness of the conquest

of Guiana, and the defence of it being conquered, and the West or East

Indies. Guiana hath but one entrance by the sea, if it hath that, for

any vessels of burden. So as whosoever shall first possess it, it shall

be 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 enter

it in that manner, the woods are so thick 200 miles together upon the

rivers of such entrance, as a mouse cannot sit in a boat unhit from

the bank. By land it is more impossible to approach; for it hath the

strongest situation of any region under the sun, and it is so environed

with impassable mountains on every side, as it is impossible to victual

any company in the passage. Which hath been well proved by the Spanish

nation, who since the conquest of Peru have never left five years free

from attempting this empire, or discovering some way into it; and yet

of three-and-twenty several gentlemen, knights, and noblemen, there was

never any that knew which way to lead an army by land, or to conduct

ships by sea, anything near the said country. Orellana, of whom the

river of Amazons taketh name, was the first, and Don Antonio de Berreo,

whom we displanted, the last: and I doubt much whether he himself or

any of his yet know the best way into the said empire. It can therefore

hardly be regained, if any strength be formerly set down, but in one

or two places, and but two or three crumsters (Dutch, Kromsteven or

Kromster, a vessel with a bent prow) or galleys built and furnished upon

the river within. The West Indies have many ports, watering places,

and landings; and nearer than 300 miles to Guiana, no man can harbour a

ship, 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 that

knoweth, whosoever hearkened most after it.

Besides, by keeping one good fort, or building one town of strength, the

whole empire is guarded; and whatsoever companies shall be afterwards

planted within the land, although in twenty several provinces, those

shall be able all to reunite themselves upon any occasion either by the

way 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 provinces

that can succour or relieve one the other by land or sea. By land the

countries are either desert, mountainous, or strong enemies. By sea, if

any man invade to the eastward, those to the west cannot in many months

turn against the breeze and eastern wind. Besides, the Spaniards are

therein so dispersed as they are nowhere strong, but in Nueva Espana

only; the sharp mountains, the thorns, and poisoned prickles, the sandy

and deep ways in the valleys, the smothering heat and air, and want of

water in other places are their only and best defence; which, because

those nations that invade them are not victualled or provided to stay,

neither have any place to friend adjoining, do serve them instead of

good arms and great multitudes.

The West Indies were first offered her Majesty's grandfather by

Columbus, a stranger, in whom there might be doubt of deceit; and

besides it was then thought incredible that there were such and so many

lands and regions never written of before. This Empire is made known to

her Majesty by her own vassal, and by him that oweth to her more duty

than an ordinary subject; so that it shall ill sort with the many graces

and benefits which I have received to abuse her Highness, either with

fables or imaginations. The country is already discovered, many nations

won to her Majesty's love and obedience, and those Spaniards which have

latest and longest laboured about the conquest, beaten out, discouraged,

and disgraced, which among these nations were thought invincible. Her

Majesty may in this enterprise employ all those soldiers and gentlemen

that are younger brethren, and all captains and chieftains that want

employment, and the charge will be only the first setting out in

victualling and arming them; for after the first or second year I doubt

not but to see in London a Contractation-House (the whole trade of

Spanish America passed through the Casa de Contratacion at Seville)

of more receipt for Guiana than there is now in Seville for the West

Indies.

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 her

Majesty by composition so many hundred thousand pounds yearly as should

both defend all enemies abroad, and defray all expenses at home; and

that he would besides pay a garrison of three or four thousand soldiers

very royally to defend him against other nations. For he cannot but

know how his predecessors, yea, how his own great uncles, Guascar and

Atabalipa, sons to Guiana-Capac, emperor of Peru, were, while they

contended for the empire, beaten out by the Spaniards, and that both of

late years and ever since the said conquest, the Spaniards have sought

the passages and entry of his country; and of their cruelties used to

the borderers he cannot be ignorant. In which respects no doubt but he

will be brought to tribute with great gladness; if not, he hath neither

shot nor iron weapon in all his empire, and therefore may easily be

conquered.

And I further remember that Berreo confessed to me and others, which I

protest before the Majesty of God to be true, that there was found among

the prophecies in Peru, at such time as the empire was reduced to the

Spanish obedience, in their chiefest temples, amongst divers others

which foreshadowed the loss of the said empire, that from Inglatierra

those Ingas should be again in time to come restored, and delivered from

the servitude of the said conquerors. And I hope, as we with these few

hands have displanted the first garrison, and driven them out of the

said country, so her Majesty will give order for the rest, and either

defend it, and hold it as tributary, or conquer and keep it as empress

of the same. For whatsoever prince shall possess it, shall be greatest;

and if the king of Spain enjoy it, he will become unresistible. Her

Majesty hereby shall confirm and strengthen the opinions of all nations

as touching her great and princely actions. And where the south border

of Guiana reacheth to the dominion and empire of the Amazons, those

women shall hereby hear the name of a virgin, which is not only able to

defend her own territories and her neighbours, but also to invade and

conquer so great empires and so far removed.

To speak more at this time I fear would be but troublesome: I trust in

God, this being true, will suffice, and that he which is King of all

Kings, and Lord of Lords, will put it into her heart which is Lady of

Ladies to possess it. If not, I will judge those men worthy to be kings

thereof, that by her grace and leave will undertake it of themselves.