VAGUE IDEAS OF EL DOEADO. 
53 
p^'Pital of tile cacique of Aromaja, and the first city of the 
imaginary empire of Guyana.” 
i often-inundated lands have been at all times 
nhabited by nations of Carib race, who carried on a very 
active inland trade with the most distant regions, we must 
a® surprised that more gold was found here in the 
ands of the Indiana than elsewhere. Tlio natives of the 
coast did not employ this metal in the form of ornaments or 
^muJets only; but also as a medium of exchange. It is 
lot extraordinary, therefore, that gold has disappeared on 
e coast of Paria, and among the nations of the Orinoco, 
tl^®® their inland communications have been impeded by 
le Europeans. The natives who have remained indepen- 
cut are in our days, no doubt, more wretched, niorc iiido- 
cut. and in a ruder state, than they were before the con- 
quest. The king of Morequito, whose son lialeigh took to 
ugland, had idsited Cuniana in 1594, to exchange a gi’eat 
4 lantity of images of massy gold for iron tools, and Euro- 
•^t?*i®®''cl>midise. The unexpected appearance of an Indian 
It . ^*iSmeuted the celebrity of the riches of the Orinoco, 
fr supposed that El Dorado must be near the country 
^om which the king ot Morequito came ; and as this country 
®™u inundated, and rivers vaguely called great seas, or 
8 cat basins of water, El Dorado must be on the banks of 
^ lake. It wag forgotten that the gold brought by the 
otlicr trading people, was as little the produce 
.. -T®!!’ soil as the diamonds of Brazil and India are the 
ab regions of Europe, where they are most 
undaut. The expedition of Berrio, which had increased 
number during the stay of the vessels at Curaana, La 
„ ^^S^^eta, and the island of Trinidad, proceeded by Morc- 
tril ° Guayana) towards the Eio Paragua, a 
of E sfream of the Caroiiy ; but sickness, the ferocity 
oiM and tho want of subsistence, opposed invin- 
Deri*^ ®o‘it‘'icles to the progress of the Spaniards. They all 
stpf * ^ ®^ccpf about thirty, who returned in a deplorable 
state to the post of Santo ThomA 
tba i®®® nipsters did not cahn the ardour displayed during 
Tb 17th century in the search of El Dorado, 
ben^q island of'l'rinidad, Antonio de Berrio, 
me the prisoner of Sir AValter Ealeigh, in the cele- 
