803 



Diego de Ordaz (1531) and Alonzo de Herera 

 (1535) directed their journeys of discovery along 

 the banks of the Lower Oroonoko. The former is 

 the famous conquistador of Mexico, who boast- 

 ed # that he had taken sulphur out of the crater 

 of the Peak of Popocatapetl, and whom the 

 emperor Charles V permitted to bear a burning 

 volcano in his arms. Ordaz, named adelantado 

 of all the country which he could conquer 

 between Brazil and the coast of Venezuela, 

 which was then called the country of the Ger- 

 man Company of Welsers (Belzares) of Augs- 

 bourg, began his expedition by the mouth of 

 the Maragnon. He there saw, in the hands of 

 the natives, " emeralds as big as a mans fist.'' 

 They were no doubt pieces of those saussurite 

 jade, or compact feldspar, which we brought 

 home from the Oroonoko, and which Mr. de la 

 Condamine found in abundance at the mouth 

 of the Rio Topayos-f-. The Indians related to 

 Diego de Ordaz, "that on going up during a 

 certain number of suns toward the west, he 

 would find a large rock (pena) of green stone ;" 

 but before they reached this pretended moun- 

 tain of emerald (rocks of euphotide ?) a ship- 

 wreck put an end to all farther discovery. The 

 Spaniards saved themselves with difficulty in 



* lb. vol. u, p. 672. 

 t See above, p. 380, 392. 



3f 2 



