829 



lake. It was forgotten, that the gold, brought 

 by the Caribbees and other trading people, was 

 as little the produce of their soil, as the dia- 

 monds of Brazil and India are the produce of 

 the regions of Europe, where they are most 

 abundant. The expedition of Berrio, which had 

 increased in number during the stay of the 

 vessels at Cumana, la Margaretta, and the 

 island of Trinidad, proceeded by Morequito 

 (near Vieja Guayana) toward the Rio Paraguay 

 a tributary stream of the Carony ; but sickness, 

 the ferocity of the natives, and the want of 

 subsistence, opposed invincible obstacles to the 

 progress of the Spaniards. They all perished ; 

 except about thirty, who returned in a deplorable 

 state to the post of SantQ Thome. 



These disasters did not calm the ardor dis- 

 played during the first half of the 17th century 

 in the search of Dorado. The governor of the 

 island of Trinidad, Antonio de Berrio, became 

 the prisoner of Sir Walter Raleigh, in the cele- 

 brated incursion of that navigator, in 15&5, on 

 the coast of Venezuela and at the mouths of 

 the Oroonoko. Raleigh collected from Berrio, 

 and from other prisoners made by Captain 

 Preston * at the taking of Caraccas, all the 



* These prisoners belonged to the expedition of Berrio and 

 of Hernandez de Serpa. The English landed at Macuto 

 (then Guayca Macuto), whence a white man, Vilialpando, 

 led them b}' a mountain path between Cumbrc and the Silla 



