THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA ad. 



1595- 

 Gonzales gave his daughter to Berreo, taking his oth Antonio 

 & honour to follow the enterprise to the last of his ^^rreo. 

 substance and life, who since, as he hath sworne to 

 me, hath spent 300000 ducats in the same, & yet never 

 could enter so far into the land as my selfe with that 

 poore troupe or rather a handful! of men, being in all 

 about 100 gentlemen, souldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, 

 boyes, & of all sorts : neither could any of the fore- 

 passed undertakers, nor Berreo himselfe, discover the 

 countrey, till now lately by conference with an ancient 

 king called Carapana, he got the true light thereof: 

 for Berreo came about 1500 miles yer he understood 

 ought, or could finde any passage or entrance into any 

 part thereof, yet he had experience of al these forenamed, 

 and divers others, and was perswaded of their errors and 

 mistakings. Berreo sought it by the river Cassamar, 

 which falleth into a great river called Pato : Pato falleth 

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

 Orenoque. 



He tooke his journey from Nuevo reyno de Granada 

 where he dwelt, having the inheritance of Gonzales 

 Ximenes in those parts : he was followed with 700 horse, 

 he drave with him 1000 head of cattell, he had also many 

 women, Indians, and slaves. How all these rivers crosse 

 and encounter, how the countrey lieth and is bordered, 

 the passage of Ximines and Berreo, mine owne discovery, 

 and the way that I entred, 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 secret, and not to 

 suffer it to passe your owne hands ; for by a draught 

 thereof all may be prevented by other nations : for I 

 know it is this very yeere sought by the French, although 

 by the way that they now take, I feare it not much. 

 It was also tolde me yer I departed England, that Villiers A new y rich 

 the admirall was in preparation for the planting of %^^^ V^^\ 

 Amazones, to which river the French have made divers river of Ama- 

 voyages, and returned much golde, and other rarities. I xones. 



365 



