76 TlMEHRI. 
f 
The discoverer of America obtained from the inhabitants 
of Hispaniola some specimens of spear-heads made of a 
metal which they called Guanin. On being assayed in 
Spain these weapons were found to be composed of a mix- 
ture of eighteen parts gold, six silver, and eight copper. 
The natives reported them as having been brought to 
the island by black men w T ho had come from the south 
and south-east.* In the name of this metal we have a 
possible derivation of the word, Guiana. That COLUM- 
BUS was convinced of the truth of this report is proved 
by his undertaking his third voyage in search of the 
Guanin country, in the course of which he discovered 
Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco. R.ALEIGH, 
speaking of the traffic with the Carribee Islands says : — 
" From Dominica to the Amazons which is above 250 
leagues, all the chief Indians in all parts wear of those 
plates of Guiana. Undoubtedly those that trade with 
the Amazons return much gold, which cometh by trade 
from Guiana, by some branch of a river that falleth from 
the country into the Amazon. "t Gold was brought into 
the Amazon according to AcUGNA, from the River 
Curupatuba, which is represented on modern maps as 
rising in the mountains of French Guiana. The report 
of the Indians is thus given : — " At the end of six days' 
voyage up the stream of it, there is a little rivulet, in 
the sands and banks of which there is a great quantity 
of gold found below the place where it washes the foot 
of an indifferently large mountain." J Near the same 
river the natives said they had found a white metal 
(silver), with which they had formerly made hatchets 
* Irving's Life of Columbus. f Discoverie of Guiana. 
% Relation of the Amazons, 1640. 
