DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF GUIANA. 5 



adventure and by tlie hope of discovering the treasures of El Dor.ido. In 1596 

 the English explorer, Keymis, following in the footsteps of Sir Walter Raleigh in 

 the "Empire of Guaya," that is, in Spanish Guiana, went in quest of the fictitious 

 lake Manoa, which figures on Raleigh's map as a great sheet of water 200 miles 

 long, with a city at its eastern extremity, reported to be " the largest in the 

 world." This map, for the first time published in 1892,* shows the course of the 

 Orinoco and Amazons rivers, and 'covers the whole continent from their mouths to 

 the Pacific coast. Writing in 1595 to Lord Charles Howard on " the discovery of 

 the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guaya," Sir Walter remarks in reference 

 to the map : " How these rivers crosse and encounter, how the country lieth, and 

 is bordered, the passage of Camenes, and of Berreo, mine own discoverie, and the 

 way that I entred, with all the rest of the nations, and rivers, your lordship shall 

 receive in a large chart or map, which I have not yet finished, and which I shall 

 most humbly pray your lordship to secret, and not to suffer it to pass your own 

 hands ; for by a draught thereof all may be prevented by other nations. For 

 I know it this very yeere sought by the French, although by the way they now 

 take I fear it not much." 



But instead of taking the route of the Orinoco, Keymis ascended the river 

 Oyapok, which traverses the region that has since become French Guiana. In 

 1688 la Motte Aigron sailed up the same river a distance of " fifty leagues " from 

 the sea, in the vain hope of reaching the banks of the Amazons, and perhaps even 

 of discovering the route leading to the famous region of gold and precious 

 stones. 



So late as 1739 the same mirage of a city with houses of rubies and other 

 gems was still powerful enough to attract Nicolas Ilortsmann, who, followino- 

 the course of the Essequibo, penetrated far into the interior. 



But regular colonisation had its origin not in adventure but in commerce. 

 Once settled on the Guiana seaboard, the traders of various nationalities began to 

 struggle for the ascendancy in the conquered lands, and their respective Govern- 

 ments took part In these rivalries by organising warlike or plundering expeditions. 

 Thanks to these expeditions a better knowledge was gradually acquired of the 

 more favoured districts on the seaboard ; the geographical f. atures of the coast- 

 lands, estuaries, and w^atercourses as far as the first rapids, were more accurately 

 laid down, and some vague notions of the inland regions Avere obtained from the 

 reports of the Indians and of the Bush Negroes. 



In 1672 Richter made his famous discovery of the flattening of the globe at 

 its poles. Two years later the Jesuits, Grillet and Bechamel, were sent to Cayenne 

 to study the physical geography of the country ; but after penetrating to the 

 territory of the Nurag and Acoqua Indians, these pioneers succumbed to the hard- 

 ships of the journey. The scientific exploration of the Guianas was thus delayed 

 till the eighteentii century, when a beginning was made in 1743 and 1744 by 



* Sir Walter Raleigh's Karte ron Gtiyana tim 1595, von L. rriedriclisen. Separatabdruck aus 

 Fcstachritt der Hamburgiachm Ameiika- Feier, 1892, This is a fac-srmile of the original preserved in the 

 British Museum. 



35 



