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The names of several very remote tributary 

 streams were known, but not their situation; 

 and when the same name, differently pronounced, 

 or not properly apprehended by the ear, fur- 

 nished different sounds, their number was mul- 

 tiplied. Other errors had perhaps their source in 

 the little interest, which Antonio de Berrio, the 

 Spanish governor, felt in communicating true 

 and precise notions to Raleigh ; who indeed 

 complains of his prisoner, "as being utterly 

 unlearned, and not knowing the east from the 

 west" (p. 28). I shall not here discuss the 

 point, how far the belief of Raleigh, in all he 

 relates of inland seas, similar to the Caspian sea; 

 on " the imperial and golden city of Manoa," 

 and on the magnificent palaces built by the 

 emperor Inga of Guyana, in imitation of those 

 of his ancestors at Peru, was real or pretended. 

 The learned historian of Brazil, Mr. Sou they, 

 and the biographer of Raleigh, Sir G. Cayley, 

 have recently thrown much light on this sub- 

 ject. It seems to me difficult to doubt of the 

 extreme credulity of the chief of the expedition, 

 and of his lieutenants. We see Raleigh adapted 

 every thing to the hypotheses he had previously 

 formed. He was certainly deceived himself; 

 but when he sought to influence the imagination 

 of queen Elizabeth, and execute the projects of 

 his own ambitious policy, he neglected none of 

 the artifices of flattery. He described to the 



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