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Part II
Part II
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 yere 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, feath-ers 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 late y by
conference with an ancient king, called Carapana,^23 he got the true light
thereof. For Berreo came about 1,500 miles yere 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 yere 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^24 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.
[Footnote 23: 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.`]
[Footnote 24: Brought back.]
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 thorough 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 [with] 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;^25 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.
[Footnote 25: Stones reduced to powder and taken internally to cure maladies
of the spleen.]
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 thorough
which he travelled, his companies were much wasted, especially by divers
encounters with the Amapaians.^26 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,^27 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.
[Footnote 26: Amapaia was Berrio`s name for the Orinoco valley above the Caura
river.]
[Footnote 27: The Caroni river, the first great affluent of the Orinoco on the
south, about 180 miles from the see.]
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
thorough 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 thorough
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,^28 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^29 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,^30 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.
[Footnote 28: The Magdalena.]
[Footnote 29: The Carib.]
[Footnote 30: North coasts of Brazil.]
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 has 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,^31 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 thorough 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, yere 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.
[Footnote 31: The district below the Caroni river.]
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,^32 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,^33 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.
[Footnote 32: The Spanish settlement of Santo Tome de la Guyana, founded by
Berrio in 1591 or 1592, but represented by Raleigh as an Indian pueblo.]
[Footnote 33: Essequibo.]
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, [and]
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^34 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 yere 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 mouht 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.
[Footnote 34: Beaconed, i. e. placed a beacon or signal upon the buoy.]
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,^35 of Plymouth, one of the greatest experience of England,
and divers other besides that have traded to Trinidad.
[Fnotnote 35: Captain of the Minion in the third voyage of Hawkins.]
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