AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1596. 



water-seas, where their distance is greatest from their 

 risings, and is besides guarded with impassable moun- 

 taines which inclose and defend it on all parts, excepting 

 Topiawaries countrey. It is no marvel then, if the vigor, 

 heart, & life of those Spaniards, who sought it from 

 Nuevo Reyno, were allayed & spent, before they came 

 neere to it, in those long, desolate & uncomfortable 

 wayes. 



2 From Cubagua to seeke it by sea in vessels of any 

 burthen, is a worke of far greater labour, then to saile 

 directly from Spaine. And to passe over land is a matter 

 of great difficultie, by reason that the Indian nations 

 inhabiting betweene the coast of The Caracas and Guiana, 

 being wearied and harried with the daily incursions of the 

 Spaniards, have now turned their abused patience into 

 furie, refusing to suffer any forces of men to be led 

 through their countreys. For the Spaniards travelling 

 in those parts, when they found not gold answerable 

 to their expectation, overlaid them with cruelties, tyrannic, 

 and thraldome : forbearing neither men, women, friends, 

 nor foes. Which maner of dealing, though in some part 

 it satisfied their desire of present profit ; yet hath it other- 

 wise done them much harme, in hardening and driving 

 those nations to desperate resolutions. 



3 From the mouth of Orellana to seeke entrance with 

 any number of men, & to bore a hole through the moun- 

 taines is all one. Neither finde wee, that any seeking it 

 that way, have at any time boasted of their gaines or 

 pleasurable journeys. 



4 From Trinidad, as the course is shortest, so doeth 

 it promise best likelyhood of successe. Howbeit, im- 

 possible it is with any vessell of ordinarie burthen by 

 that way to recover the river of Raleana. 



The second. The Spaniards have bene so farre from 



helping and furthering one another, or admitting partners 



or coadjutors in the Guiana-cause, that amongst so many 



[III. 692.] attemptes, from the beginning to the last, I cannot find 



any one, when they were otherwise likeliest to prevaile, 



500 



