INCURSION OF THE CARlBi. . 87 



oluah bofore the Spaniards at the name of the daughter of a 

 traitor." TJie soul of the tyrant (such is the belief of the 

 natives) wanders in the savannahs, like a flame that flies the 

 approach of men.* 



The second historical event connected with the name of 

 Valencia is the great incursion made by the Caribs of the 

 Orinoco in 1578 and 1580. That cannibal horde went up 

 the banks of the Guarico, crossing the plains or llanos. 

 They were happily repulsed by the valour of Garcia Gon- 

 /.ulca, one of the captains whose names are still most revered 

 in those provinces. It is gratifying to recollect, that the 

 descendants of those very Caribs now live in the missions 

 as peaceable husbandmen, and that no savage nation of 

 Guiana dares to cross the plains which separate the region 

 of the forests from that of cultivated land. The Cordillera 

 of the coast is intersected by several ravines, very uniformlv 

 directed from south-east to north-west. This phenomenon 

 is general from the Quebrada of Tocume, between Pe tares 

 and Caracas, as far as Porto Cabello. It would seem as if 

 the impulsion had everywhere come from the south-east; 

 and this fact is the more striking, as the strata of gneiss and 



when we killed that bad and ambitious captain. We chose a caballero 

 of Seville, Fernando de Guzman, for king : and we swore fealty to him, 

 as is done to thyself. I was named quarter-master-general : and because 

 I did not consent to all he willed, he wanted to kill me. But I killed this 

 new king, the captain of his guards, his lieutenant-general, his chaplain, 

 a woman, a knight of the order of Rhodes, two ensigns, and five or six 

 domestics of the pretended king. I then resolved to punish thy ministers 

 and thy auditors (counsellors of the audiencia). I named captains and 

 sergeants: these again wanted to kill me, but I had them all hanged. 

 In the midst of these adventures we navigated for eleven months, till we 

 reached the mouth of the river. We sailed more than fifteen hundred 

 leagues. God knows how we got through that great mass of water. I 

 advise thee, O great King, never to send Spanish fleets into that accursed 

 river. God preserve thee in his holy keeping." 



This letter was given by Aguirre to the vicar of the island of Mar- 

 fareta, Pedro de tontreras, in order to be transmitted to King Philip II. 

 Fray Pedro Simon, Provincial of the Franciscans in New Grenada, saw 

 several manuscript copies of it both in America and in Spain. It wag 

 printed, for the first time, in 1723, in the History of the Province of 

 Venezuela, by Oviedo, vol. i, p. 206. Complaints no less violent, on 

 the conduct of the monks of the 16th century, were addressed directly to 

 Ihe pope by the Milanese traveller, Girolamo Benzoni. 

 * See vol. i, p. 164. 



