OTHER EABLT EXPED1TIOK3. 
43 
jortress of Paria, the Indian village of Uriaparia (no donht 
below Iinataca, on a point where the inundations of the 
delta prevented the Spaniards from being able to procure 
firewood), Caroa, in the province of Carora; the rivers 
h aranaca (Caura?) and Caxavana (Cuchivero ?) ; the village 
ot Cabritu (Cabruta), and the Randal near the month of 
1 ^ (probably the Randal of Cariveu and the Piedra 
de la Paeiencia). As the Rio Meta, on account of the 
proximity of its sources and of its tributary streams to the 
auriferous Cordilleras of new Grenada (Cundinamarca), 
®pjoj^ed great celebrity, HeiTcra attempted to go up this 
river. He there found nations more civilized than those of 
the Orinoco, but that fed on the flesh of mule dogs. Her- 
rera was killed in battle by an arrow poisoned with the 
Jince of curare (yierva); and when dying named Alvaro de 
Ordaz his lieutenant, who led the reniains of the expedition 
(1535) to the fortress of Paria, after having lost the tew 
horses which had resisted a campaign of eighteen months. 
reports which were circuluted ot the wealth of 
the inhabitants ot the Meta, and the other tributary streams 
^lat descend from the eastern side of the Cordilleras of 
i ew Grenada, engaged successively Geronimo do Ortal, 
' icolas Pedermann, and Jorge de Espira (George von 
Hieior), ill 15:^5 1336, to undertake expeditious by 
|aiKl towards the south and south-west. From the promon- 
or.v ot Paria, as tar as Cabo de la Vela, little figures of 
molten gold had been found in the hands of the natives, 
as early as the years 1198 and 1500. The principal mar- 
•'■ets for these amulets, which the vonen used as orna- 
ments, were the villa-ves of Ctiriana (Coro) and Cauchieto 
(near the Rio la H^cha). The metal employed by th; 
lounders ot Cauchieto came from a mountainous country 
more to the south. It may be conceived, that the expedi- 
tions of Ordaz and Herrera served to increase the desire oi 
urawiiig nearer to those auriferous countries. George voii 
r .'nft Coro (1535), and penetrated by the mountains 
ot Merida to the hanks of the Apure and the Meta. He 
passed these two rivers near their sources, where they have 
but little breadth. The Indians told him that, farther on, 
white men wandered about the plains. Speier, who ima- 
gined that he was not far from the banka of the Amazon, 
