riches of Peru, or Nueva Espania, so left by the sea-side, as it can be easily washed away with a great flood, or spring-tide, or left dry upon the sands on a low ebb. The port-towns are few and poor, in respect of the rest within the land, and are of little defence, and are only rich when the fleets are to receive the treasure for Spain; and we might think the Spaniards very simple, having so many horses and slaves, that if they could not upon two days warning carry all the gold they have into the land, and far enough from the reach of our footmen, especially the Indies being (as it is for the most part) so mountainous, fo full of woods, rivers, and marshes. In the port-towns of the province of Vensuello, as Cumana, Coro, and S. Jago (whereof Coro and St. Jago were taken by Captain Preston, and Cumana and St. Josephus by us) we found not the value of one rial of plate in either; but the cities of Barquisimeta, Valentia, S. Sebastian, Cororo, St. Lucia, Alleguna, Marecabo, and Truxillo, are not so easily invaded. Neither doth the burning of those on the coast impoverish the king of Spain any one ducat; and if we sack the river of Hache, St. Marta, and Cartagena, which are the ports of Nuevo Reyno and Popayan, there are beside, within the land, which are indeed rich and populous, the towns and cities of Merida, Lagrita, S'. Christophero, the great cities of Pampelone, St. Fe de Bagota, Tunia and Mozo, where the emeralds are found, the towns and cities VOL. I. L of Moriquito, Velis, la Villa de Leùa, Palma, Unda, Angustura, the great city of Timana, Tocaima, S. Aguila, Pasto, Juago, the city of Popayan itself, Los Remedios, and the rest. 'If we take the ports and villages within the bay of Vraba, in the kingdom or rivers of Dariena, and Caribana, the cities and towns of St. Juan de Roydas, of Cassaris, of Antiocha, Caramanta, Cali, and Auserma, have gold enough to pay the king part, and are not easily invaded by the way of the ocean; or if Nombre de Dios and Panama be taken, in the province of Castillo de Oro, and the villages upon the rivers of Cenu and Chagre. Peru hath beside those, and beside the magnificent cities of Quito and Lima, so many islands, ports, cities, and mines, as, if I should name them with the rest, it would seem incredible to the reader; of all which, because I have written a particular treatise of the West-Indies, I will omit their repetition at this time, seeing that in the said treatise I have anatomized the rest of the sea-towns as well of Nicaragna, Jucata, Nueva Espana, and the islands, as those of the inland, and by what means they may be best invaded, as far as my mean judgment can comprehend. But I hope it shall appear that there is a way found to answer every man's longing, a better Indies for her Majesty than the king of Spain hath any; which if it should please her Highness to undertake, I shall most willingly end the rest of my days in following the same. If it be left to the spoil and sackage of common persons, if the love and service of so many nations be despised, so great riches and so mighty an empire refused, I hope her Majesty will yet take my humble desire, and my labour therein, in gracious part, which if it had not been in respect of her Highness' future honour and riches, I could have laid hands and ransomed many of the kings and cassiqui of the country, and have had a reasonable proportion of gold for their redemption. But I have chosen rather to bear the burden of poverty than reproach, and rather to endure a second' travail, and the chances thereof, than to have defaced an enterprise of so great assurance, until I knew whether it pleased God to put a disposition in her princely and royal heart, either to follow or foreslow the same. I will therefore leave it to his ordinance that hath only power in all things, and do humbly pray that your honours will excuse such errors as, without the defence of art, over-run in every part the following discourse, in which I have neither studied phrase, form, nor fashion; and that you will be pleased to esteem me as your own (though over-dearly bought) and I shall ever remain ready to do you all honour and service. W. R.b b The following address to the reader' was also prefixed. • Because there have been divers opinions conceived of the gold ore brought from Guiana, and for that an alderman of London, and an officer of her Majesty's mint, hath given out that the same is of no price, I have thought good by the addi + 2 tion The discovery of Guiana. On Thursday, February 6th, in the year 1595, we departed England, and the Sunday follow tion of these lines to give answer as well to the said malicious slander, as to other objections. It is true, that while we abode at the island of Trinidado, I was informed by an Indian, that not far from the port where we anchored, there were found certain mineral stones which they esteemed to be gold, and were thereunto persuaded the rather, for that they had seen both English and Frenchmen gather and embark some quantities thereof. Upon this likelihood I sent forty men, and gave order that each one should bring a stone of that mine, to make trial of the goodness; which being performed, I assured them at their return, that the same was marcasite, and of no riches or value. Nothwithstanding, divers trusting more to their own sense than to my opinion, kept of the said marcasite, and have tried thereof, since my return, in divers places. In Guiana itself I never saw marcasite, but all the rocks, mountains, all stones in the plains, in woods, and by the rivers' sides, are, in effect, thorough shining, and appear marvellous rich; which being tried to be no marcasite, are the true signs of rich minerals, but are no other than el madre del oro (as the Spaniards term them) which is the mother of gold, or, as it is said by others, the scum of gold. Of divers sorts of these many of my company brought also into England, every one taking the fairest for the best, which is not general. For mine own part, I did not countermand any man's desire or opinion, and I could have afforded them little if I should have denied them the pleasing of their own fancies therein. But I was resolved that gold must be found, either in grains separate from the stone (as it is in most of all the rivers in Guiana) or else in a kind of hard stone, which we call the white spar, of which ing had sight of the north cape of Spain, the wind for the most part continuing prosperous. We which I saw divers hills, and in sundry places, but had neither time nor men, nor instruments fit to labour. Near unto one of the rivers I found of the said white spar, or flint, a very great lidge, or bank, which I endeavoured to break by all the means I could, because there appeared on the outside some small grains of gold. But finding no means to work the same upon the upper part, seeking the sides and circuit of the said rock, I found a cleft in the same, from whence with daggers, and with the head of an axe, we got out some small quantities thereof, of which kind of white stone (wherein gold is engendered) we saw divers hills and rocks in every part of Guiana, wherein we travelled. Of this there hath been made many trials; and in London it was first assayed by Mr. Westwood, a refiner, dwelling in Wood-street, and it held after the rate of 12,000 or 13,000 pounds a ton. Another sort was afterward tried by Mr. Bulmar and Mr. Dimoke, assay-master, and it held after the rate of 23,000 pounds a ton. There was some of it again tried by Mr. Palmer, comptroller of the Mint, and Mr. Dimoke, in Goldsmiths'-hall, and it held after the rate of 26,900 pounds a ton. There was also at the same time, and by the same persons, a trial made of the dust of the said mine, which held eight pounds six ounces weight of gold in the hundred. There was likewise, at the same time, a trial made of an image of copper, made in Guiana, which held a third part gold, beside divers trials made in the country, and by others in London. But because there came of ill with the good, and belike the said alderman was not presented with the best, it hath pleased him therefore to scandal all the rest, and to deface the enterprise as much as in him lieth. "It hath also been concluded by divers, that if there had been any such ore in Guiana, and the same discovered, that I would have brought home a greater quantity thereof. First, I was not |