56 
CEEDULITY OF EALEIGH. 
cataract of Atiuile (Afures), wliich prevents all further 
iiavigation.” Notwithstanding Ealeigh’s exaggeration, so 
little wortliy ot a statesman, his narrative contains important 
materials for the histoiy of geography. The Orinoco, above 
tne counucnce of tlie Apurc, was at that period as little 
known to Europeans, as in oiu- time the course of the Ki-T?r 
below 8cgo. The names of several veiw remote tributary 
streams were known, but not their situation ; and r\ hen tho 
same name, diHercntly pronounced, or not properly appre- 
bended by the ear, furnished different sounds, their number 
was inultiplicd. Other errors had perhaps their source in 
the little interest which Antonio de Benio, the Spanish 
governor, lelt m communicating true and precise notions to 
Ealeigh, who indeed coiuphtins of liis prisoner, “ as being 
utterly uulcariied, and not knowing tlie oast from the west ” 
I sliall not hero discuss the point, how far the belief of 
Eflleigh, lu all ho relates of inland seas, similar to the 
Caspian sea; on “ tho imperial and golden city of Mauoa,” 
mid on the niagmficeiit palaces built by the emperor Inna of 
(^ui/nna, in imitation of those of his ancestors at Peru, was 
real or pretended. Tlie learned historian of Brazil, Mr 
bouthey, and the biographer of Ealeigh, Sir G-. Ouyloy, have 
recently thrown nmcli light on this subject. It seems to 
me ditheult to doubt of the extreme crcdiditv of the chief of 
the expeditiou, and of his lieutenants. see Ealeicrh 
adapted everything to the hyiiotlieses he had previouslv 
ormed. lie 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 ol the artifices of flattery, lie described to the Queen 
the transports of those barbarous nations at the sight of 
her picture ;” he would liave “the name of the august 
virgin, who knows how to conquer empires, reach as far as 
the country of the warlike women of the Orinoco and the 
Amazon; he asserts, that, “at the period when the 
that of the nation of Betoyes, of the plains of the Casanare and the Meta ? 
of De L Isle (1/00). and of banson (1K56), place the province of Ama- 
liaja erroneonsly to the east of the Orinoco. We see clearly by the nar- 
ative of Raleigh (p. 26 and 72), that Amapaja is the inundated country 
between the Meta and the Guarico. Where are the river8.0auney and 
ooarro . Ihe Guaviare appears to me to be the Goavar of Raleigh. 
