Part 8 (1/2)
[Sidenote: _Friendly Chiefs_]
On the fifteenth day they discovered afar the Guianathey entered the lishman had preceded them Consequently Captain Keymis afterwards re-named the river, after his coion But the natives did not obstruct their advance Ralegh had the art of i them with faith and ad the villagers, insulting their wo their hallowed graves for treasure A border prince, Toparih's captains with pine-apple wine till some of them were 'reasonable pleasant' He also lent his elderly brother for pilot Under his guidance a branch of the river, edged with rocks of a blue colour, like steel ore, was explored
On the right bank were seen the plains of the Sayues to the north There dwelt the black smooth-haired Aroras, accustomed to use poisoned arrows No Spaniard kne to cure hurts frohtas well this as all other poisons' Humboldt speaks of the Guaikas, who still use poisoned darts, and by the terror of theenous Marvels_]
On they voyaged as far as Aromaia and its port, Morequito, 300 h was visited by wise Topiowari, King of Aromaia, 110 years old His nephew and predecessor, Morequito, had been ed for seventeen days in a chain, like a dog, till he ransoold and several chains of spleen stones The old chief, alked to and fro, twenty-eight ht a present of flesh, fish, fowl, Guiana pine-apples, the prince of fruits, declares Ralegh, bread, wine, parakeets, and an arh told him he had been sent by his Queen to deliver the Indians from Spanish tyranny Thence he would have ascended the Caroni, but his men could not row a stone's throw in an hour So he pushed on by land to view the falls, ten or a dozen in nuh above the other as a church tower Deer flitted across every path Birds at evening sang a thousand different tunes Cranes and herons, white, crimson, carnation, perched on the banks Fresh easterly breezes blew Every stone they stooped to take up proe, who had been captured with Berreo, had told them a rich silver mine was near the Caroni Topiowari's only son, Caworako, informed him of the Carolians He said they were foes to the Spaniards They had a feud also with the Epiruold The Carolians and three tribes at the head of the Caroni, he asserted, would help Ralegh against both Spain and the Inca He spoke too of the Ewaipanomas, with eyes in their shoulders andon the Caora He was sure of the eyes and ht and slain h vouches neither for the Ao, nor for these Ewaipanomas, 'For my part I saw them not, but am resolved that so many people did not all combine, or forethink to make the report' Nineteen years later he took occasion in his History to justify by the Greek belief in Amazons 'mine own relation of them, which was held for vain and improbable'
[Sidenote: _Sparrow and Goodwin_]
By this time the summer was over Winter in the Tropics is the rainy season It shows itself less by any sensible change of vegetation than by floods, gusts, thunder and lightning The streaed; the men etted to the skins ten times a day, and had no dry clothes to put on The fleet was soh set his face hoh against the wind, of little less than 100 miles a day On his arrival at Morequito Topiowari caht a plentiful supply of provisions, which Ralegh bought at fair prices Every day, said the old acious anxiety for his country, which the Spaniards threatened
Ralegh's noble courtesy was as unstinted to the patriarchal savage as to the Queen of England He had infused the like temper into his officers, and Topiowari's confidence on Already they had talked freely on the politics and nature of Guiana, and how to obtain access to its heart Now the chief definitely offered to join in a lisheance of the Inca and Spain Ralegh was ti to return next year Topiowari sent with hih left in Aromaia Francis Sparrow, or Sparrie, to sketch and describe the country and travel to Manoa with merchandise Sparrow trafficked in Indian slaves
At last the Spaniards captured him and forwarded him to Spain, froh Goodwin, reh found hiue When these arrangeh steadfastly purposed to come back shortly For the moment his plan rather was to lay the foundation of friendshi+ps, and to acquire information, than to conquer territory or open ave away, he states, old plates He had seen enough to be persuaded the region was a land of gold He was shown speciht by the Epirumei, and the process had been explained to him In Aromaia itself he observed all the hills spread with stones of the colour of gold and silver At first he had conjectured they were marquesite He tested them and ascertained they were _el old beloas supposed to be indicated He remarked also the outside ofa conclusion
[Sidenote: _Keymis's Gold Mine_]
From Aromaia a cacique Putijold ave in He sent Key that they should meet at the cumaca
Putijh passed old ore, a round mountain of mineral stone, and a mountain of crystal The crystal mountain he did not find croith the dia to Berreo, blazed afar Its true diade doith a noise as of a thousand enor bells Near Mount Rorai a festival, 'all as drunk as beggars' They pressed upon the strangers abundance of delicate pine-apple wine On the cu Putijma They were thereat rage and increase of Orinoko,' 'the sea without a shore,' as Humboldt has termed its mouth The Cano Manamo too, by which they had entered Guiana, was now violently in flood They had to follow the Capuri branch At its alley was near sinking Ralegh, ee with Gifford, Caulfield, and his cousin, Grenville, thrust into the sea at alley he left to co one another in show of courage, it pleased God about nine o'clock the nextwe descried the Isle of Trinidad' The shi+ps were riding at anchor at Curiapan on the south-west of the island 'Never was there to us a ht' Only oneinto the river of Lagartos to sas instantly devoured before them all by a crocodile
The rest, in spite of wet, heat, want of sleep, clean clothes, and shelter, and a diet of rotting fruit, crocodile, sea-cow, tapir, and armadillo, all survived They had suffered froh coloured too highly the mineral riches of Guiana He attests the veracity of the praises both of its prodigious vegetable and animal fruitfulness, and of its healthiness away from the malaria of the coast His opinion was forht years of exploration
[Sidenote: _Voyage Hoinia, and endeavour to relieve his settlers Extren He demanded supplies at cumana, where he left Berreo, at St Mary's, and at Rio de la Hacha Being refused them, he sacked and burnt all three
Incidentally he mentions that he found 'not a real of plate' But he had punished the settlements for their churlishness, not for the sake of booty He did not care to look out for spoil 'It would have sorted ill,' he wrote, 'with the offices of honour which by her Majesty's grace I hold this day in England, to run froe of ordinary prizes' On July 13, off Cuba, Preston and Soht Sir Walter Ralegh returning from his painful and happy discovery of Guiana, and his surprise of the Isle of Trinidad Their two shi+ps and his three reust, 1595, he is understood to have been back in England, 'a beggar,' as he expressed it, 'and withered'
His wife had been watching over his interests Her letter to Cecil of March 20, 1595, is pleasantly characteristic She explained in it her urgency in a suit against Lord Huntingdon: 'I rather choose this time to follow it in Sir Walter's absence, that myself may bear the unkindness, and not he' The subject of the proceedings was a refusal by the Earl to surrender for Ralegh's use Lady Ralegh's portion, which was in his hands, and had becoh's Book on Guiana_]
[Sidenote: _Vindication of his Veracity_]
The return did not excite enuineness or value of the minerals He cannot have profited by his investment in the adventure, and was not disposed to be fervent in its praise Hakluyt remarks how careful the cold Secretary of State was not to be overtaken with any partial affection for the planting of Guiana Even in Devonshi+re there see speeches touching Sir Walter's late occasion at sea' His enemies before he went predicted he would never return, but would beco' Now that he was back, they depreciated the importance of the enterprise, and especially his part in it Very absurdly they contended that he was too easeful and sensual to have undertaken a journey of so great travail, and had been hiding in Cornwall Soer A London alderman persuaded an officer of the Mint to report this worthless; but Westwood, a refiner of Wood Street, and Dulmar Dimoke, and Palmer, Controllers of the Mint, pronounced it very rich
Calued that the whole had been ih himself wrote to Cecil on November 21, 1595: 'What becomes of Guiana I much desire to hear, whether it pass for a history or a fable' He had to take pen in hand, and defend hie, rich, and beautiful Eolden city of Manoa_ The volurateful dedication to his friends in adversity, his kinsman, the Lord Admiral, and Cecil Hurossest and round for the accusation is that Ralegh quoted Indian tales of strange creatures, giving the Indian narrators as his authorities It is not necessary to deny that he end of a nation of Ae of faith in portents, in witches, and wizards If he did not sternly refuse credence even to the shoulder-eyed Ewaipanos than are to be seen between London and Staines,' as he has said, was being opened up to wondering Europe Ralegh's personal evidence, as I have k has tested; and he certifies that it is not open to Huraphical knowledge exhibited in Ralegh's narrative has been proved to be, for the period, curiously wide and accurate His observations on the natural phenoacious The trust he reposed in itsnow demonstrated to have been ht it International disputes have recently arisen out of the discovery of gold in the country still known as Guiana Of the gold field in Venezuela, which was coh's Guiana, a Government Inspector of Mines stated in 1889 that he believed we had in it Sir Walter's el Dorado itself
Contemporaries were captivated by the charm of the narrative It suffered from no dearth of readers at home Abroad it was admired almost more warmly Four German editions appeared between 1599 and 1602, the first three being published at Nureain in 1605, 1617, 1707, 1727, and 1747 Latin versions were issued at Nurelorified the author and discoverer in Latin verse George Chaplish The Queen continued obdurate
Ralegh's friends in vain interceded for his recall to Court In vain he waited for a su about London,' as was said in Deceallant' He would not have ht his pardon If he could thereby have appeased the Queen's 'so powerful displeasure,' he would for a year ined hiiveness by his feat Elizabeth, he co one failing eclipse the merit of many virtuous actions' Personal resentment, he supposed, closed her ears to his eloquent entreaties that she should keep a s towards Manoa In that event, he was certain, the Inca would yield to her Majesty so many hundred thousand pounds yearly as should both defend her from all enemies abroad and defray all expenses at ho the wiles by which, through his Aold, Philip 'crept into councils, and set loyalty at liberty in the greatest monarchies'
[Sidenote: _The Gold of Guiana_]
Guiana contained, he asserted, all things precious Its lord would possess as old, a more beautiful e of Spain or the Great Turk He understood the teold, it is in effect needless to remember other coold and diah not without reason But he had a quick eye for its other and hout his career, to its end, and in all his writings, he differed fro ith Spain notaspects, but as athe national boundaries He desired to endow England with a colonial e which could render it habitable for Europeans It was only a six weeks' voyage froland It was free froion in which, he was convinced, Englishmen could thrive and be happy With his ht be guarded by a couple of forts on sites co the entrance into the Orinoko
[Sidenote: _Spanish Plantation of San Thome_]
[Sidenote: _Another of Keymis's Gold Mines_]
He trusted she as the lady of ladies would be inspired to accept the direct doe those race and leave should undertake the task of the, ust He wrote to Cecil in Nove shi+ps He besought that none be suffered to soil the enterprise, and that he should be thought worthy to govern the country he had discovered The whole duty of sovereignty properly, he held, appertained to the State If it could not afford the requisite funds, he expounded in an unpublished essay how a few hundred English artificers ainst the Spaniards By an able and generous arguht of the natives to their territory with the industrial colony he was planning As the State could in no shape be induced to interest itself, he lish connexion with Guiana at his private charge In the January of 1596 he despatched Key and Discovery They were laden with merchandise to comfort and assure the people that they should not yield to any coh and Robert Cecil were joint adventurers with Ralegh Burleigh advanced 500, and his son lent a new shi+p bravely furnished Key Philip, perturbed by the tidings of Ralegh's enterprise, had granted Berreo's application by de Vera for troops On May 16, 1595, before Ralegh's own return, Sir John Gilbert heard fro had sent forces to el Dorado A powerful force for the conquest of Manoa arrived in Trinidad in 1596 Finally, it is true, the majorityBut a village had already been planted near the port of Topiowari, who, Keymis heard, was dead