809 



the village of Cabritu (Cabruta), and the Rati- 

 dal* near the mouth of the Meta (probably the 

 Raudal of Cariven and the Piedra de la Pacien- 

 cia). As the Rio Meta, on account of the prox- 

 imity of it's sources and of it's tributary streams 

 to the auriferous Cordilleras of new Grenada 

 (Cundinamarca), enjoyed great celebrity, He- 

 rera attempted to go up this river. He there 

 found nations more civilized than those of the 

 Oroonoko, but that fed on the flesh of mute 

 dogs-\-. Herera was killed in battle by ,an 

 arrow poisoned with the juice of curare (yierva) ; 

 and when dying named Alvaro de Ordaz his 

 lieutenant, who led the remains of the expedition 

 (1535) to the fortress of Paria, after having lost 

 the few horses, which had resisted a campaign 

 of eighteen months. 



Confused reports which were circulated on 

 the wealth of the inhabitants of the Meta, and 

 the other tributary streams that descend from 

 the eastern side of the Cordilleras of New Gre- 

 nada, engaged successively Geronimo de Ortal* 

 Nicolas Federmann, and Jorge de Espira (Georg 

 von Speier), in 1535 and 1536, to undertake 

 expeditions by land towards the south and south- 



* " La singla de penascos, vista por Ordaz, que travesa el 

 rio por debaxo las aguas y que hace gran oleaje." Fray Pedro 

 Simony p. 227. Herera, Dec. V, p. 116, 155, 212. Caulin, 

 p. 150,153. 



t See above, p. 671, 



