THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA ad. 



1595 

 in gold, he doubted not but to perswade the king to 

 yeeld to him some further helpe, especially for that 

 this land hath never beene sacked, the mines never 

 wrought, and in the Indies their works were well spent, 

 and the golde drawen out with great labour and charge. 

 He also dispatched messengers to his sonne in Nuevo 

 reyno to levie all the forces he could, & to come downe 

 the river Orenoque to Emeria, the province of Carapana, [HI. 642.] 

 to meet him : he had also sent to Saint lago 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 comming to Trinidad, as it was indeed, (and 

 for that purpose I sent Jacob Whiddon the yeere 

 before to get intelligence with whom Berreo himselfe 

 had speech at that time, and remembred how inquisitive 

 Jacob Whiddon was of his proceedings, and of the 

 countrey of Guiana) Berreo was stricken into a great 

 melancholy and sadnesse, and used all the arguments 

 he could to disswade me, and also assured the gentle- 

 men 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 barke or pinnesse, or hardly with 

 any ships boat, it was so low, sandy, and full of flats, 

 and that his companies were dayly grounded in their 

 canoas, which drew but twelve inches water. Hee 

 further sayde, that none of the countrey would come 

 to speake with us, but would all flie ; and if we 

 followed them to their dwellings, they would burne 

 their owne townes : 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 

 cary victuall for halfe 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 



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