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Part III
Part III
I sent with John Douglas an old cacique of Trinidad for a pilot, who told
us that we could not return again by the bay or gulf, but that he knew a
by-branch which ran within the land to the eastward, and he thought by it we
might fall into Capuri, and so return in four days. John Douglas searched
those rivers, and found four goodly entrances, whereof the least was as big as
the Thames at Woolwich, but in the bay thitherward it was shoal and but six
foot water; so as we were now without hope of any ship or bark to pass over,
and therefore resolved to go on with the boats, and the bottom of the galego,
in which we thrust 60 men. In the Lion`s Whelp`s boat and wherry we carried
twenty, Captain Caulfield in his wherry carried ten more, and in my barge
other ten, which made up a hundred; we had no other means but to carry victual
for a month in the same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to boil
and dress our meat. Captain Gifford had with him Master Edward Porter,
Captain Eynos, and eight more in his wherry, with all their victual,
weapons, and provisions. Captain Caulfield had with him my cousin Butshead
Gorges, and eight more. In the galley, of gentlemen and officers myself had
Captain Thyn, my cousin John Greenvile, my nephew John Gilbert, Captain
Whiddon, Captain Keymis, Edward Hancock, Captain Clarke, Lieutenant Hughes,
Thomas Upton, Captain Facy, Jerome Ferrar, Anthony Wells, William Connock,,and
above fifty more. We could not learn of Berreo any other way to enter but in
branches so far to windward as it was impossible for us to recover; for we had
as much sea to cross over in our wherries, as between Dover and Calice, and in
a great bollow, the wind and current being both very strong. So as we were
driven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into the bottom of
the Bay of Guanipa, and from thence to enter the mouth of some one of those
rivers which John Douglas had last discovered; and had with us for pilot an
Indian of Barema, a river to the south of Orenoque, between that and Amazons,
whose canoas we had formerly taken as he was going from the said Barema, laden
with cassavi bread to sell at Margarita. This Arwacan promised to bring me
into the great river of Orenoque; but indeed of that which he entered he was
utterly ignorant, for he had not seen it in twelve years before, at which time
he was very young, and of no judgment. And if God had not sent us another
help, we might have wandered a whole year in that labyrinth of rivers, yere we
had found any way, either out or in, especially after we were past ebbing and
flowing, which was in four days. For I know all the earth doth not yield the
like confluence of streams and branches, the one crossing the other so many
times, and all so fair and large, and so like one to another, as no man can
tell which to take: and if we went by the sun or compass, hoping thereby to go
directly one way or other, yet that way we were also carried in a circle
amongst multitudes of islands, and every island so bordered with high trees as
no man could see any further than the breadth of the river, or length of the
breach. But this it chanced, that entering into a river (which because it had
no name, we called the River of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first
Christians that ever came therein), the 22. of May, as we were rowing up the
same, we espied a small canoa with three Indians, which by the swiftness of my
barge, rowing with eight oars, I overtook yere they could cross the river. The
rest of the people on the banks, shadowed under the thick wood, gazed on with
a doubtful conceit what might befall those three which we had taken. But when
they perceived that we offered them no violence, neither entered their canoa
with any of ours, nor took out of the canoa any of theirs, they then began to
show themselves on the bank`s side, and offered to traffic with us for such
things as they had. And as we drew near, they all stayed; and we came with our
barge to the mouth of a little creek which came from their town into the great
river.
As we abode here awhile, our Indian pilot, called Ferdinando, would needs
go ashore to their village to fetch some fruits and to drink of their
artificial wines, and also to see the place and know the lord of it against
another time, and took with him a brother of his which he had with him in the
journey. When they came to the village of these people the lord of the island
offered to lay hands on them, purposing to have slain them both; yielding for
reason that this Indian of ours had brought a strange nation into their
territory to spoil and destroy them. But the pilot being quick and of a
disposed body, slipt their fingers and ran into the woods, and his brother,
being the better footman of the two, recovered the creek`s mouth, where we
stayed in our barge, crying out that his brother was slain. With that we set
hands on one of them that was next us, a very old man, and brought him into
the barge, assuring him that if we had not our pilot again we would presently
cut off his head. This old man, being resolved that he should pay the loss of
the other, cried out to those in the woods to save Ferdinando, our pilot; but
they followed him notwithstanding, and hunted after him upon the foot with
their deer-dogs, and with so main a cry that all the woods echoed with the
shout they made. But at the last this poor chased Indian recovered the river
side and got upon a tree, and, as we were coasting, leaped down and swam to
the barge half dead with fear. But our good hap was that we kept the other old
Indian, which we handfasted to redeem our pilot withal; for, being natural of
those rivers, we assured ourselves that he knew the way better than any
stranger could. And, indeed, but for this chance, I think we had never found
the way either to Guiana or back to our ships; for Ferdinando after a few days
knew nothing at all, nor which way to turn; yea, and many times the old man
himself was in great doubt which river to take. Those people which dwell in
these broken islands and drowned lands are generally called Tivitivas. There
are of them two sorts; the one called Ciawani, and the other Waraweete.
The great river of Orenoque or Baraquan hath nine branches which fall out
on the north side of his own main mouth. On the south side it hath seven other
fallings into the sea, so it disemboqueth by sixteen arms in all, between
islands and broken ground; but the islands are very great, many of them as big
as the Isle of Wight, and bigger, and many less. From the first branch on the
north to the last of the south it is at least 100 leagues, so as the river`s
mouth is 300 miles wide at his entrance into the sea, which I take to be far
bigger than that of Amazons. All those that inhabit in the mouth of this river
upon the several north branches are these Tivitivas, of which there are two
chief lords which have continual wars one with the other. The islands which
lie on the right hand are called Pallamos, and the land on the left,
Hororotomaka; and the river by which John Douglas returned within the land
from Amana to Capuri they call Macuri.
These Tivitivas are a very goodly people and very valiant, and have the
most manly speech and most deliberate that ever I heard of what nation soever.
In the summer they have houses on the ground, as in other places; in the
winter they dwell upon the trees, where they build very artificial towns and
villages, as it is written in the Spanish story of the West Indies that those
people do in the low lands near the gulf of Uraba. For between May and
September the river of Orenoque riseth thirty foot upright, and then are those
islands overflown twenty foot high above the level of the ground, saving some
few raised grounds in the middle of them; and for this cause they are enforced
to live in this manner. They never eat of anything that is set or sown; and as
at home they use neither planting nor other manurance, so when they come
abroad they refuse to feed of aught but of that which nature without labour
bringeth forth. They use the tops of palmitos for bread, and kill deer, fish,
and porks for the rest of their sustenance. They have also many sorts of
fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of birds and fowls; and if to
speak of them were not tedious and vulgar, surely we saw in those passages of
very rare colours and forms not elsewhere to be found, for as much as I have
either seen or read.
Of these people those that dwell upon the branches of Orenoque, called
Capuri, and Macureo, are for the most part carpenters of canoas; for they make
the most and fairest canoas; and sell them into Guiana for gold and into
Trinidad for tabacco, in the excessive taking whereof they exceed all nations.
And notwithstanding the moistness of the air in which they live, the hardness
of their diet, and the great labours they suffer to hunt, fish, and fowl for
their living, in all my life, either in the Indies or in Europe, did I never
behold a more goodly or better-favoured people or a more manly. They were
wont to make war upon all nations, and especially on the Cannibals, so as none
durst without a good strength trade by those rivers; but of late they are at
peace with their neighbours, all holding the Spaniards for a common enemy.
When their commanders die they use great lamentation; and when they think the
flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from their bones, then they take
up the carcase again and hang it in the cacique`s house that died, and deck
his skull with feathers of all colours, and hang all his gold plates about the
bones of this arms, thighs, and legs. Those nations which are called Arwacas,
which dwell on the south of Orenoque, of which place and nation our Indian
pilot was, are dispersed in many other places, and do use to beat the bones
of their lords into powder, and their wives and friends drink it all in their
several sorts of drinks.
After we departed from the port of these Ciawani we passed up the river
with the flood and anchored the ebb, and in this sort we went onward. The
third day that we entered the river, our galley came on ground; and stuck so
fast as we thought that even there our discovery had ended, and that we must
have left four-score and ten of our men to have inhabited, like rooks upon
trees, with those nations. But the next morning, after we had cast out all
her ballast, with tugging and hauling to and fro we got her afloat and went
on. At four days` end we fell into as goodly a river as ever I beheld, which
was called the great Amana, which ran more directly without windings and
turnings than the other. But soon after the flood of the sea left us; and,
being enforced either by main strength to row against a violent current, or
to return as wise as we went out, we had then no shift but to persuade the
companies that it was but two or three days` work, and therefore desired
them to take pains, every gentleman and others taking their turns to row,
and to spell one the other at the hour`s end. Every day we passed by goodly
branches of rivers, some falling from the west, others from the east, into
Amana; but those I leave to the description in the chart of discovery, where
every one shall be named with his rising and descent. When three days more
were overgone, our companies began to despair, the weather being extreme
hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away the air, and the
current against us every day stronger than other. But we evermore commanded
our pilots to promise an end the next day, and used it so long as we were
driven to assure them from four reaches of the river to three, and so to two,
and so to the next reach. But so long we laboured that many days were spent,
and we driven to draw ourselves to harder allowance, our bread even at the
last, and no drink at all; and our men and ourselves so wearied and scorched,
and doubtful withal whether we should ever perform it or no, the heat
increasing as we drew towards the line; for we were now in five degrees.
The further we went on, our victual decreasing and the air breeding great
faintness, we grew weaker and weaker, when we had most need of strength and
ability. For hourly the river ran more violently than other against us, and
the barge, wherries, and ship`s boat of Captain Gifford and Captain Caulfield
had spent all their provisions; so as we were brought into despair and
discomfort, had we not persuaded all the company that it was but only one
day`s work more to attain the land where we should be relieved of all we
wanted, and if we returned, that we were sure to starve by the way, and that
the world would also laugh us to scorn. On the banks of these rivers were
divers sorts of fruits good to eat, flowers and trees of such variety as were
sufficient to make ten volumes of Herbals; we relieved ourselves many times
with the fruits of the country, and sometimes with fowl and fish. We saw birds
of all colours, some carnation, some crimson, orange-tawny, purple,
watchet,^36 and of all other sorts, both simple and mixed, and it was unto us
a great good-passing of the time to behold them, besides the relief we found
by killing some store of them with our fowling-pieces; without which, having
little or no bread, and less drink, but only the thick and troubled water of
the river, we had been in a very hard case.
[Footnote 36: Pale blue.]
Our old pilot of the Ciawani, whom, as I said before, we took to redeem
Ferdinando, told us, that if we would enter a branch of a river on the right
hand with our barge and wherries, and leave the galley at anchor the while in
the great river, he would bring us to a town of the Arwacas, where we should
find store of bread, hens, fish, and of the country wine; and persuaded us,
that departing from the galley at noon we might return yere night. I was very
glad to hear this speech, and presently took my barge, with eight musketeers,
Captain Gifford`s wherry, with himself and four musketeers, and Captain
Caulfield with his wherry, and as many; and so we entered the mouth of this
river; and because we were persuaded that it was so near, we took no victual
with us at all. When we had rowed three hours, we marvelled we saw no sign of
any dwelling, and asked the pilot where the town was; he told us, a little
further. After three hours more, the sun being almost set, we began to suspect
that he led us that way to betray us; for he confessed that those Spaniards
which fled from Trinidad, and also those that remained with Carapana in
Emeria, were joined together in some village upon that river. But when it grew
towards night, and we demanded where the place was, he told us but four
reaches more. When we had rowed four and four, we saw no sign; and our poor
watermen, even heart-broken and tired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we
had now come from the galley near forty miles.
At the last we determined to hang the pilot; and if we had well known the
way back again by night, he had surely gone. But our own necessities pleaded
sufficiently for his safety; for it was a dark as pitch, and the river began
so to narrow itself, and the trees to hang over from side to side, as we were
driven with arming swords to cut a passage thorough those branches that
covered the water. We were very desirous to find this town hoping of a feast,
because we made but a short breakfast aboard the galley in the morning, and it
was now eight o`clock at night, and our stomachs began to gnaw apace; but
whether it was best to return or go on, we began to doubt, suspecting treason
in the pilot more and more; but the poor old Indian ever assured us that it
was but a little further, but this one turning and that turning; and at the
last about one o`clock after midnight we saw a light, and rowing towards it
we heard the dogs of the village. When we landed we found few people; for the
lord of that place was gone with divers canoas above 400 miles off, upon a
journey towards the head of Orenoque, to trade for gold, and to buy women of
the Cannibals, who afterwards unfortunately passed by us as we rode at an
anchor in the port of Morequito in the dark of the night, and yet came so near
us as his canoas grated against our barges; he left one of his company at the
port of Morequito, by whom we understood that he had brought thirty young
women, divers plates of gold, and had great store of fine pieces of cotton
cloth, and cotton beds. In his house we had good store of bread, fish, hens,
and Indian drink, and so rested that night; and in the morning, after we had
traded with such of his people as came down, we returned towards our galley,
and brought with us some quantity of bread, fish, and hens.
On both sides of this river we passed the most beautiful country that
ever mine eyes beheld; and whereas all that we had seen before was nothing but
woods, prickles, bushes, and thorns, here we beheld plains of twenty miles in
length, the grass short and green, and in divers parts groves of trees by
themselves, as if they had been by all the art and labour in the world so made
of purpose; and still as we rowed, the deer came down feeding by the water`s
side as if they had been used to a keeper`s call. Upon this river there were
great store of fowl, and of many sorts; we saw in it divers sorts of strange
fishes, and of marvellous bigness; but for lagartos^37 it exceeded, for there
were thousands of those ugly serpents; and the people call it, for the
abundance of them, the River of Lagartos, in their language. I had a negro, a
very proper young fellow, who leaping out of the galley to swim in the mouth
of this river, was in all our sights taken and devoured with one of those
lagartos. In the meanwhile our companies in the galley thought we had been all
lost, for we promised to return before night; and sent the Lion`s Whelp`s
ship`s boat with Captain Whiddon to follow us up the river. But the next day,
after we had rowed up and down some fourscore miles, we returned, and went on
our way up the great river; and when we were even at the last cast for want of
victuals, Captain Gifford being before the galley and the rest of the boats,
seeking out some place to land upon the banks to make fire, espied four canoas
coming down the river; and with no small joy caused his men to try the
uttermost of their strengths, and after a while two of the four gave over and
ran themselves ashore, every man betaking himself to the fastness of the
woods. The two other lesser got away, while he landed to lay hold on these;
and so turned into some by-creek, we knew not whither. Those canoas that were
taken were loaded with bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies,
which those Indians, called Arwacas, proposed to carry thither for exchange;
but in the lesser there were three Spaniards, who having heard of the defeat
of their Governor in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, came away
in those canoas; one of them was a cavallero, as the captain of the Arwacas
after told us, another a soldier and the third a refiner.
[Footnote 37: Alligators and caymans.]
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 thorough
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^38 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.
[Footnote 38: Pine-apple (see p. 353).]
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^39 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
ourbarge 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 yere 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`^40 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.
[Footnote 39: Push.]
[Footnote 40: Turtles.]
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^41 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 garoused^42 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.
[Footnote 41: Nearest.]
[Footnote 42: Caroused.]
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.^43 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.
[Footnote 43: Raleigh regarded the occupation of `Guiana` as a step towards
the conquest of New Granada and Peru (see pp. 361-362.)]
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 uur 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.
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