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| Sir Walter Raleigh |
Sir Walter Raleigh. The
Discovery of Guiana
Vol. 33, pp. 326-341 of
The Harvard Classics
Savages who drink
the powdered bones of their dead mixed with wine, Amazons who hold
riotous festivals, the worship of golden statues, all the primitive
wonders of Guiana are described by the famous Elizabethan gallant,
Sir Walter Raleigh.
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; 1 and for the disease of the
stone we also esteem them. Of these I saw divers in Guiana; and
commonly every king or cacique hath one, which their
wives for the most part wear, and they esteem them as great jewels.
But
to return to the enterprise of Berreo, who, as I
have said, departed from Nuevo Reynowith 700 horse,
besides the provisions above rehearsed. He descended by the river
calledCassanar, 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 Metariseth
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
intoBaraquan, and are but of his heads; for at their
coming together they lose their names, andBaraquan 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. 2 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, 3 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 Berreoconfessed and
those of Guiana with whom I had most conference; and
is situate uponOrenoque also. In this country Berreo lost
sixty of his best soldiers, and most of all his horse that remained
in his former year’s travel. But in the end, after divers
encounters with those nations, they grew to peace, and they
presented Berreo with ten images of fine gold among
divers other plates and croissants, which, as he
sware to me, and divers other gentlemen, were so curiously wrought,
as he had not seen the like either in Italy, Spain, or
the Low Countries; and he was resolved that when
they came to the hands of the Spanish king, to whom he had sent them
by his camp-master, they would appear very admirable, especially
being wrought by such a nation as had no iron instruments at all, nor
any of those helps which our goldsmiths have to work withal. The
particular name of the people in Amapaia which gave
him these pieces, are called Anebas, and the river
of Orenoque at that place is about twelve English
miles broad, which may be from his outfall into the sea 700 or 800
miles.
This province of Amapaia is
a very low and a marish ground near the river; and by reason of the
red water which issueth out in small branches 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 ofAmapaia 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, 4 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 5 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 Marañon, and the
regions of Marinatambal, 6 and of
all the kings of provinces, and captains of towns and villages, how
they stood in terms of peace or war, and which were friends or
enemies the one with the other; without which there can be neither
entrance nor conquest in those parts, nor elsewhere. For by the
dissension between Guascar and Atabalipa,
Pizarro conquered Peru, and by the hatred that
the Tlaxcallians bare to Mutezuma,
Cortes was victorious over Mexico; without which
both the one and the other had failed of their enterprise, and of the
great honour and riches which they attained unto.
Now Berreo began to
grow into despair, and looked for no other success than his
predecessor in this enterprise; until such time as he arrived at the
province of Emeria towards the east sea and mouth of the
river, where he found a nation of people very favourable, and the
country full of all manner of victual. The king of this land is
called Carapana, a man very wise, subtle, and of great
experience, being little less than an hundred years old. In his youth
he was sent by his father into the island of Trinidad, by
reason of civil war among themselves, and was bred at a village in
that island, called Parico. At that place in his youth he
had seen many Christians, both French and Spanish, and went divers
times with the Indians of Trinidad to Margarita and Cumaná, 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 Cumaná 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 Cumaná, 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 Cumaná,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
ofCarapana were of most price in Guiana, went
onward, and in eleven days arrived atManoa, 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
ofAromaia, 7 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. ButMorequito, suspecting
the same, fled over Orenoque, and thorough the
territories of theSaima and Wikiri recovered Cumaná, 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.
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, 8 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, 9 which
are on the south side of the mouth of Orenoque, and
there buy women and children from the cannibals, which are of that
barbarous nature, as they will for three or four hatchets sell the
sons and daughters of their own brethren and sisters, and for
somewhat more even their own daughters. Hereof the Spaniards make
great profit; for buying a maid of twelve or thirteen years for three
or four hatchets, they sell them again at Margarita in
the West Indies for fifty and an hundred
pesos, which is so many crowns.
The master of my ship, John
Douglas, took one of the canoas which came
laden from thence with people to be sold, and the most of them
escaped; yet of those he brought, there was one as well favoured and
as well shaped as ever I saw any in England; and
afterwards I saw many of them, which but for their tawny colour may
be compared to any in Europe. They also trade in those
rivers for bread of cassavi, of which they buy an
hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at Margarita for
ten pesos. They also recover great store of
cotton, Brazil wood, and those beds which they
call hamacas or Brazil beds,
wherein in hot countries all the Spaniards use to lie commonly, and
in no other, neither did we ourselves while we were there. By means
of which trades, for ransom of divers of the Guianians, and
for exchange of hatchets and knives, Berreo recovered
some store of gold plates, eagles of gold, and images of men and
divers birds, and dispatched his camp-master for Spain, with
all that he had gathered, therewith to levy soldiers, and by the show
thereof to draw others to the love of the enterprise. And having sent
divers images as well of men as beasts, birds, and fishes, so
curiously wrought in gold, he doubted not but to persuade the king to
yield to him some further help, especially for that this land hath
never been sacked, the mines never wrought, and in the Indies their
works were well spent, and the gold drawn out with great labour and
charge. He also despatched messengers to his son inNuevo Reyno to
levy all the forces he could, and to come down the
river Orenoque toEmeria, 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. Berreowas 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 andJohn
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 10 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.
In the meantime,
fearing the worst, I caused all the carpenters we had to cut down
agalego 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, 11 of Plymouth, one
of the greatest experience of England, and divers
other besides that have traded to Trinidad.
I sent with John Douglas an
old cacique of Trinidad for a
pilot, who told us that we could not return again by the bay or gulf,
but that he knew a by-branch which ran within the land to the
eastward, and he thought by it we might fall into Capuri, and
so return in four days. John Douglas searched those
rivers, and found four goodly entrances, whereof the least was as big
as the Thames at Woolwich, but in
the bay thitherward it was shoal and but six foot water; so as we
were now without hope of any ship or bark to pass over, and therefore
resolved to go on with the boats, and the bottom of the galego, in
which we thrust 60 men. In the Lion’s Whelp’s boat
and wherry we carried twenty, Captain Caulfieldin 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.
Note
1. Stones reduced
to powder and taken internally to cure maladies of the spleen.
Note
3. The Caroni
river, the first great affluent of the Orinoco on the south, about
180 miles from the see.
Note
8. The Spanish
settlement of Santo Tomé de la Guyana, founded by Berrio in 1591 or
1592, but represented by Raleigh as an Indian pueblo.
Note
11. Captain of
the Minion in
the third voyage of Hawkins.
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