m. ENGLISH in AMERICA. 
Chap. 
when he had lead Credit at Court. At fuch Times 
he did not relinquilh Bufinefs to go and hide himfelr in 
Country Retreats, and thence write Letters an^d 
Poems to fcrew himfeif again into the Affeilions of the 
Queen his Miftrefs, as fome other of her great Men did, 
^ which he could have done better than any of them •, 
nor did he form Intrigues againft her Minifters, and force 
himXelf inta Power and his Sovereign’s Prefence-, but he 
took another Road peculiar to, and worthy of. Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh : He applied himfeif to contrive, and not to 
contrive only, but to execute, fuch great and glorious En- 
terprizcs, as raifed his Fame fo high, that the Whifpers 
of Envy could be no longer heard -, and, when the Queen 
recalled him to her Favour, it never appeared as an Att 
of Grace, but as a Stroke of Juftice ; fo that after thefe 
Recedes, he ihone at Court with double Luftre, and his 
Miftrefs, haughty as ftie was, could not help appearing 
upon thefe Occafions proud of the Pofteffion of fuch a 
Man, and ailiamed of his Abfence. _ 
It was in one of thefe voluntary Exiles that Sir Walter 
Raleigh executed a Defign he had long meditated, I mean 
his Expedition to Guiana, an Expedition great in it- 
felf, though ainfoitunate in its Confequences formed upon 
the moft noble Principles, and performed with equal 
Valour and Prudence, and in a Word every way equal 
to the Genius of its Author, and. Experience has fince 
fatally ftiewn, fuperior to every Genius but his. He 
faw, with Regret, the Plantation of Virginia abandoned, 
and’ he faw tliat the VCant of immediate Profit was the 
Caufe-, he relblved therefore to ftrike out the Means of 
fettling a new Colony in another Part of America, which 
ftiould be free from this Inconvenience, and which fhould 
transfer the richeft Produ6ls of that Country to the En- 
glijh, if they had but Courage and Conduft enough to 
fetch them. In order to this he enquired, with the great- 
eft Diligence, into the State of the Country before men- 
tioned -, he fought from Books and Papers all the AlTift- 
ance that could be had of that kind he drew from per- 
fonal Informations, which were more in his Power than 
perhaps they ever v/ere in any other Man’s, all the Notices 
that they could give ; but he drew the greateft Lights 
from his own profound Knowledge and extenfive Expe- 
rience. 
He was undoubtedly as well verfed in all Parts of 
Philofophy and natural Hiftory, as any Man of his time, 
and perhaps much better ; for, befides all the Knowledge 
which refults trom Reading, he had likewife a great 
pradtical Skill, whence, without doubt, arofe his confi- 
dent Beliel, that this Country of Gtuana was the richeft 
in America, and by confequence, according to the Opi- 
nion of thofe times, and indeed of thefe, the richeft in 
the World. He did not go thither therefore to fatisfy his 
own Mind upon that head, but that he might furnifti him- 
feif with the means of fatisfying others ; for he very well 
knew that it would have been an idle and ridiculous thing 
in him to think of moving People to attempt a Planta- 
tion meerly by a rational and philofophical Argument, 
which he knevv' few would be able to underftand, and of 
thofe that did, many would oppofe his Sentiments from 
Pride, and more from Prejudice. He chofe therefore 
to treat the Riches and Value of this noble Country in the 
plaineft way, and as a Point of fa6t and forefeeing that 
it would be objeded, that if it were fo, and the Fafts fo , 
notorious as he reprefented it, the Spayiiards would cer- 
tainly have fettled there, and not have left it to fall into 
the Hands of any other Nation this induced him to 
draw up a very clear and fuccind Account of the feve- 
ral Methods ufed by the Spaniards to difcover and gain 
this Country, which at once anfwered the Objedion, and 
proved to fuch as had an high 'Opinion of the Judg- 
ment formed by the Spaniards of the Wealth and Import- 
ance of thefe Countries, that Guiana was one that de- 
ferved the higheft Commendations. 
Thefe Accounts of his are difperfed through various 
Pieces written by him upon this Subjed •, but, for the 
Eafe of the Reader, we fhall colled and - range them in 
their natural Order, by which means they will become 
a kind of Supplement to what has been already deli- 
vered of the Spanijh Difcoveries and Conquefts this be- 
VoL. IL Numb. 83, 
ing the foie Reafoti of our omitting them there^ becallfe 
we forefaw the Neceflity of repeating, or at leaft of reca- 
pitulating, them here, for the Sake of explaining Sir Wal- 
ter RaleigV s Expeditions; ^Ve haVe fhewn in that Chap- 
ter how the Marquis Pizatro overthrew the Empire of 
the Inca’s, and made himfeif Matter of all their Territories, 
and of a great Part of their Treafures •, and we have like- 
wife fhewn that this was fo far from fatisfying his Avarke 
and Ambition, that he propofed to extend his Conquefts 
b eyond the Limits of Peru, in order to penetrate into the 
Heart of South America, from the Hopes he had con- 
ceived of finding richer Countries there than aiiy he had 
yet met with. , , 
It was with this View that he ordered hiS Bt Other 
Gonzalo, after he had taken Pofteffion of ^tto, which 
was the laft Conqueft of the Inca’s, to continue his' Ex- 
peditions on that Side, though he was fenfible that he 
could receive little or no Affiftance from the Informations 
of the Natives his Brother accordingly entered the Pro- 
vince of Los ^uixos and, after making himfeif Matter 
of that Country, the People of which were downright 
Barbarians in Comparifon of thofe of Peru, he deter- 
mined to pafs the high Mountains which bound that 
Province on the North, and aftembled a great many In- 
dians, and a good quantity of Cattle for that Purpofe , 
but, vdieri he had afcended half way up theie Mountains, 
he found that he had taken his Meafures wrong, and 
that the Cold was fo intenfe, that it would be impofiiole 
for him to profecute his March in that Manner. He 
therefore quitted his Cattle and the beft Part of his Bag- 
gage, refolving to make all the hafte he could into the 
plain Countries on the other Side, and truft to the Pro- 
vifions he might meet with there. 
Accordingly he defcended into the V alley of Zuma^ue, 
vrhich he found very plentiful, and in which theiefore 
refreftied his Forces for two Pvlonths, endeavouring then 
to continue his March Northward •, but, finding the Road 
extremely rough and mountainous, he turned diredtly 
Eaft, in Hopes of meeting with an eafier Paffiige this 
opened a Vv^ay into a new Province well peopled and 
very rich the Inhabitants of which were dreadfully 
a.inazed at the coming of the Spaniards amongft thern, 
and indeed they very well might, for they behaved to- 
wards them in a Manner barbarous beyond Expreffion ; 
for Gonzalo Pizarro exercifed the greateft Cruelty ima- 
ginable on the Inhabitants of thefe Regions, infomucli 
that he gave Men to be eaten alive by his Dogs. This 
engaged all the Natives to put themfelVes in Arms^ 
againft him, fo that he was obliged to encamp liimielt 
a^ in an Enemy’s Country ; and his Cruelties, together 
with the Defpair he was in of ever being able to find 
what he was feeking after, had like to have put an End 
to his Enterprize at once. He was encamped on the 
Bank of a River, which fwelled fo much in one Night, 
that if the Sentinels, who perceived the VT^ater was a-pace 
getting Ground, had not warned them ot their Danger, 
they had been all drowned ■, but at the Alarm they foon 
fecured themfelves, by making towards the Cottages of 
the wild People ; and Pizarro refolved to return to Zu^ 
maque, not knowing what other Courfe to take. From 
thence he proceeded again with all his Men, and^ after 
a March of four Leagues he met with a great Village 
called Ampua, governed by a Cazique, and found a 
great Number of the Inhabitants in a Pofture of Defence, 
expefiting their Enemy but there was another and great- 
er Obftacle in his Way than this Cazique and all hiS 
Troops, and that was a River fo wide and deep that he 
could have no Thought of venturing to fwim over it; 
He could therefore find no better Expedient than to enter 
into a Treaty with the People of the Country, and to 
defire the Help of their Canoes to crofs this River. 
The Cazique received this Propofal with great Civi- 
lity, offered them what they afked, and gave them as 
many of thefe little Boats as they defired j and on this, 
Pizarro made him a Return of a great many little Spa-- 
nijh Toys, by way of requital. This Cazique having 
received Advice of the ill Treatment many of his 
Neighbours had received from the Spaniards, thought or 
nothing more than how to get rid of them, and to de- 
H h h liver 
