702 Transactions of the American Institute. 



great need of an nndergroiind road. The Arcade plan was most 

 approved and most feasible. There was no plan yet brought forward 

 that claimed so many good points as this. There are no very serious 

 objections to it that he could hear. 



After deciding to continue thi& discussion, the association adjourned 

 to next Thursday evening. 



May 21, 1868. 



Professor Samuel D. Tillman in the cliair. 



The meeting was opened by the reading of a communication from 

 Professor Eobert P. Stevens, dated Guayana, South America, April 

 4th, 1868, as follows: 



The Gold Fields of Guayana. 



Prof. P. P. Stevens. — A few preliminary words upon the history of 

 this newly developed auriferous territoi'y will be interesting, and pre- 

 pare the way for my future remarks. 



The close of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth 

 ■was marked by the wildest schemes for search of precious metals 

 ever known in commercial circles. From the time of the discovery 

 of the Amazon river by Orrellana, there had grown into the belief of 

 the then agitated world, faith in the existence of a land of untold 

 and fabulous wealth, called El Dorado^ or the " gilded king." Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, who had mingled much with Spaniards, and was 

 well posted in current Spanish literature, had the firmest faith in the* 

 existence of such a gold field ; and fitted out, mainly at his own cost, 

 three expeditions for the Orinoco river, in search of the precious 

 metals. Almost every commercial nation also sent out costly expedi- 

 tions, all of which miserably failed. For nearly two centuries this 

 El Dorado has remained a fable, a myth, as for nearly a century it 

 •was a will-o'-the-wisp, leading to lavish expenditure of money, men, 

 and lives. No other gold field, known to man, ha? had such treasure 

 of wealth and blood fruitlessly lavished upon its search as those of 

 Yenezuelian Guayana. 



Guayana is divided into two natural, hydi-ographical basins, one, 

 and the largest, is that of the Orinoco river. The other, and smallest, 

 is that of the Essequibo, or its aflluents. The larger was in the 

 beginning of this century extensively explored by Von Humboldt. 

 Of it, he says in general terras, that its rocks were too old to be rich 



