Guiana Gold. 
By T. S. Hargreaves, Secretary, Institute of Mines and Forests. 
|0 doubt many people are inclined to view the 
gold industry, which has advanced with such 
rapid strides during the last few years in this 
Colony, as something in the light of a novelty, but as a 
matter of fa6l it is no new thing. 
We know that the adventurers who invaded Central 
and South America at the commencement of the 16th 
century devoted themselves more particularly to the 
conquest of Mexico and Peru, leaving unexplored the 
marshy plains and impassable forests of British Guiana, 
which at that time had not the reputation of containing 
gold — that unique subje6l of eternal controversy. 
It was not until after the conquest of Peru and after 
Orellana — despite the orders of his chief — had made his 
adventurous voyage down the mighty Amazon ; and even 
years after that when MARTINEZ, the buccaneer, poured 
his dying confession into the ears of a Priest at Havanna, 
that the wonderful story of the city ruled by a descendant 
of the last of the Incas, Manoa de'lDorado, was 
spread abroad. 
The stories of the inexhaustible treasures to be found 
in the interior of Guiana attracted shoals of adventurers 
who coasted its marshy shores and ascended its numerous 
rivers in the vain search for the mythical El Dorado. 
That gold existed on the Orinoco was proved to the 
satisfaction of Sir WALTER Raleigh who lost his life 
* Read at the March Meeting of the Society.— Ed. 
