6 THE SEA. 



and that she delivered all such nations about her as were by them oppressed ; and having 

 freed all the coast of the northern world from their servitude, had sent me to free them 

 also, and withal to defend the country of Guiana from their invasion and conquest. I 

 showed them her Majesty's picture, which they so admired and honoured as it had been 

 easy to have brought them idolatrous thereof." Raleigh used the Governor with courtesy 

 and hospitality, and sounded him well concerning Guiana; and Berrio conversed with him 

 readily, having no suspicion of Raleigh's intentions. But when Sir Walter told him that 

 he had resolved to see that country, the Governor " was stricken into a great melancholy," 

 and tried all he could to dissuade him. He described the rivers as full of sandbanks, and 

 so shallow that no bark or pinnace could ascend them, and scarcely a ship's boat ; that they 

 could not carry provisions for half the journey, and that the " kings and lords of all the 

 borders of Guiana had decreed that none of them should trade with any Christians for gold, 

 because the same would be their own overthrow, and that for the love of gold the Christians 

 meant to conquer and dispossess them altogether." The golden country was 600 miles 

 farther from the coast than he had been informed, which piece of news Raleigh carefully 

 concealed from his company, for he was resolved " to make trial of all, whatsoever happened." 

 After many explorations, on the part of his captains, of the rivers, the mouths of which 

 were found to be as shallow as he had been told, he, with 100 men divided in a galley, 

 four boats and barges, and carrying provisions for a month, resolved to see for himself. 



From the spot where the ships lay, they had as much sea to cross as between Dover 

 and Calais, the waves being high, and the current strong. They at length entered a stream, 

 which Raleigh called the River of the Red Cross, and where they noted Indians in a canoe 

 and on the banks. Their interpreters, Ferdinando and his brother, went ashore to fetch 

 fruit, and drink with the natives, when they were seized by the chief with the intention 

 of putting them to death, because "they had brought a strange nation into their territory 

 to spoil and destroy them/' Ferdinando and his brother managed to escape, the former 

 running into the woods, and the latter reaching the mouth of the creek where the barge 

 was staying, when he cried out that his brother was slain. On hearing this, "we set 

 hands," says Raleigh, "on one of them that was next us, a very old man, and brought him 

 into the barge, assuring him that if we had not our pilot again we would presently cut 

 off his head." The old man called to his tribe to save Ferdinando, but they hunted him 

 through the forest, with shouts that made the whole neighbourhood resound. At length 

 he reached the water, and climbing out on an overhanging tree, dropped down and swam 

 to the barge, half dead with fear. The old Indian was retained as pilot. 



Ascending with the flood, and anchoring during ebb tide, they went on, till on the 

 third day their galley grounded, and stuck so fast that it was a question whether their 

 discoveries must not end there ; but at last, by lightening her of all her ballast, and hauling 

 and tugging, she was once more afloat. Next day they reached a fine river, where there 

 was no flood tide from the sea, and they had to contend against a strong current ; " and 

 had then," says Raleigh, " no shift but to persuade the company that it was but two or three 

 days' work " to reach their destination. " When three days w r ere overgone, our companies 

 oegan to despair, the weather being extreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that 

 kept away the air, and the current against us every day stronger than the other ; but we once 



