Early English Colonies in Trinidad. 389 



reports as towching Orenoke, and because one of them 

 in the Indien towne, were in S*. Thome when it was 

 taken by the Inglish. I was desirus by taking 2 or 3 of 

 the rest to know the trewth but so careless were the 

 mariners I sent as they suffered all to go loose and to es- 

 cape : but I had yet 2 Indiens abord mee, and a third 

 went pilot for Orenoke, one of these I sent away with 

 knives to trade with a nation inhabiting the est part of 

 Trinidado called the Nepoyios, with this charge that if 

 he came not agayne after 4 dayes (which was the time 

 by him required) that I would then hange his brother 

 which was the pilot as aforesayd, and this other Indien 

 abord, to which the Indien abord condiscented. 



But the 12. of Februarie, I went ashore and tooke the 

 Indien with mee fastned and well bound to one of my 

 men, so caried him with me to shew me the trees which 

 yeild bal?emum of which I had recouered a nuttfuU of 

 that kinde which smells like Angolica and is very rare 

 and pretious*, and after it was 10 a clock and very hott, 

 the wood also being full of musketos, I returned and left 

 my Indien in charge with one of my masters mates and 

 3 others, but I was no sooner gonn but they untyde him 

 and he att the instant tooke the wood and escaped, not- 

 withstanding that I had told them that if the Indiert gatt 



* Ralegh's observation, that the balsam resembled Angolica, by which 

 he alludes to the violet- scented Orris root flris /lorentinaj. causes us to 

 conjecture that it is the balsam of Tolu, which is yielded by a tree called 

 Myrospermum toluiferiim, Rich. "We have found that useful tree near 

 the Saerere mountains, between the rivers Rupununi and Takutu, and 

 the natives of these regions wear the seeds, which are equally fragrant 

 with the resin, as ornaments round their body. If we are correft in our 

 S'lpposition, this tree is no longer to be met with in Tx\n\dad,—Schoni 

 burgk's Note. 



