THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA a.d. 



if wee had well knowen the way backe againe by 

 night, hee had surely gone ; but our owne necessities 

 pleaded sufficiently for his safety : for it was as darke 

 as pitch, and the river began so to narrow it selfe, 

 and the trees to hang over from side to side, as wee 

 were driven with arming swords to cut a passage 

 thorow those branches that covered the water. Wee 

 were very desirous to finde this towne, hoping of a 

 feast, because wee made but a short breakefast aboord 

 the galley in the morning and it was now eight a 

 clocke at night, and our stomacks began to gnawe 

 apace : but whether it was best to returne or goe on, 

 we beganne to doubt, suspecting treason in the pilot 

 more and more : but the poore olde Indian ever 

 assured us that it was but a little further, but this 

 one turning and that turning : and at the last about 

 one a clocke after midnight wee saw a light ; and rowing 

 towards it, wee heard the dogges of the village. When 

 we landed wee found few people ; for the lord of that 

 place was gone with divers canoas above foure hundred 

 miles off, upon a journey towardes the head of Orenoque 

 to trade for golde, and to buy women of the Canibals, 

 who afterward unfortunately passed by us as wee rode 

 at an anker in the port of Morequito in the darke of 

 the night, and yet came so neere us, as his canoas grated 

 against our barges : he left one of his company at the 

 port of Morequito, by whom wee understood that hee 

 had brought thirty yoong women, divers plates of golde, 

 and had great store of fine pieces of cotton cloth, and 

 cotton beds. In his house we had good store of 

 bread, fish, hennes, and Indian drinke, and so rested 

 that night, and in the morning after we had traded 

 with such of his people as came downe, we returned [III. 646.] 

 towards our gaily, and brought with us some quan- 

 tity of bread, fish, and hennes. 



On both sides of this river, we passed the most beauti- ^ most beauti- 

 full countrey that ever mine eyes beheld : and whereas all M '^o^^t^^y- 

 that we had seene before was nothing but woods, prickles, 



387 



