AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1595. 



To conclude, Guiana is a countrey that hath yet her 

 maydenhead, never sackt, turned, nor wrought, the face 

 of the earth hath not bene torne, nor the vertue and salt 

 of the soyle spent by manurance, the graves have not 

 bene opened for golde, the mines not broken with sledges, 

 nor their Images puld downe out of their temples. It 

 hath never bene entered by any armie of strength, and 

 never conquered or possessed by any christian Prince. 

 It is besides so defensible, that if two forts be builded in 

 one of the Provinces which I have scene, the flood setteth 

 in so neere the banke, where the channell also lyeth, that 

 no ship can passe up but within a Pikes length of the 

 artillerie, first of the one, and afterwards of the other : 

 Which two Forts will be a suiHcient guarde both to the 

 Empire of Inga, and to an hundred other several king- 

 domes, lying within the said river, even to the citie of 

 Quito in Peru. 



There is therefore great difference betweene the easi- 

 nesse of the conquest of Guiana, and the defence of it 

 being conquered, and the West or East Indies : Guiana 

 hath but one entrance by the sea (if it hath that) for any 

 vessels of burden : so as whosoever shall first possesse it, 

 it shall be found unaccessible for any enemie, except he 

 come in Wherries, Barges, or Canoas, or else in flat 

 bottomed boates, and if he doe offer to enter it in that 

 manner, the woods are so thicke two hundred miles 

 together upon the rivers of such entrance, as a mouse 

 cannot sit in a boat unhit from the banke. By lande it is 

 more impossible to approch, for it hath the strongest 

 situation of any region under the sunne, and is so 

 environed with impassable mountaines on every side, as 

 it is impossible to victuall any company in the passage : 

 which hath bene well prooved by the Spanish nation, who 

 since the conquest of Peru have never left five yeeres 

 free from attempting this Empire, or discovering some 

 way into it, and yet of three and twentie severall Gentle- 

 men, Knights, and Noble men, there was never any that 

 knewe which way to leade an army by land, or to con- 



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