OT1IER EABLT EXPEDITIONS. 43 



fortress of Paria, the Indian village of TJriaparia (no doubt 

 below Imataca, on a point where the inundations of the 

 delta prevented the Spaniards from being able to procure 

 firewood), Caroa, in the province of Carora; the rivers 

 Caranaca (Caura ?) and Caxavana (Cuchivero ?) ; the village 

 of Cabritu (Cabruta), and the Raudal near the mouth of 

 the Meta (probably the Raudal of Cariven and the Piedra 

 de la Paciencia). As the Rio Meta, on account of the 

 proximity of its sources and of its tributary streams to the 

 auriferous Cordilleras of new Grenada (Cundinamarca), 

 enjoyed great celebrity, Herrera attempted to go up this 

 river. He there found nations more civilized than those of 

 the Orinoco, but that fed on the flesh ot mute dogs. Her- 

 rera was killed in battle by an arrow poisoned with the 

 juice of curare (yierva); and when dying named Alvaro de 

 Ordaz his lieutenant, who led the remains of the expedition 

 (1535) to the fortress of Paria, after having lost the few 

 horses which had resisted a campaign of eighteen months. 



Confused reports which were circulated of the wealth of 

 the inhabitants of the Meta, and the other tributary streams 

 that descend from the eastern side of the Cordilleras of 

 New Grenada, engaged successively Geronimo de Ortal, 

 Nicolas Pedermann, and Jorge de Espira (George von 

 Speier), in 1535 and 1536, to undertake expeditions by 

 land towards the south and south-west. Prom the promon- 

 tory of Paria, as far as Cabo de la Vela, little figures of 

 molten gold had been found in the hands of the natives, 

 as early as the years 1198 and 1500. The principal mar- 

 kets for these amulets, which the women used as orna- 

 ments, were the villages of Curiana (Coro) and Cauchieto 

 (near the Rio la Hacha). The metal employed by th; 

 founders of Cauchieto came from a mountainous country 

 more to the south. It may be conceived, that the expedi- 

 tions of Ordaz and Herrera served to increase the desire oi 

 drawing nearer to those auriferous countries. George von 

 Speier left Coro (1535), and penetrated by the mountains 

 of Merida to the banks of the Apure and the Meta. He 

 passed these two rivers near their sources, where they have 

 but little breadth. The Indians told him that, farther on, 

 white men wandered about the plains. Speier, who ima- 

 gined that he was not far from the banks of the Amazon^ 



