Great Ralegh

by Hugh De Sélincourt

Meanwhile the company which was left behind in the galley, fearing that some mishap must have come to the wherries, sent out a party after them in the ship's boat of the Lion's Whelp, under Captain Whiddon. But Ralegh was so pleased with the prospect which the morning light disclosed to his view, that he had rowed some forty miles farther on. For no longer was the country beshrubbed with thorns and thickets and closely growing trees. Great plains, twenty miles in length, covered with fair green grass spread out before him, "and in divers parts groves of trees by themselves (he writes with his keen eye for effects of landscape), as if they had been by all the art and labour in the world so made of purpose, and still as we rowed the deer came down, feeding by the water's side, as if they had been used to a keeper's call." But all was not beautiful and quiet. In the river swam fishes of a monstrous size, and thousands of ugly serpents, called lagartos. A negro, a very proper young fellow, leapt from Ralegh's barge to swim to the shore, and in the sight of all the men, one of these lagartos ate him. Those monstrous serpents are now called alligators.

They came back to the great river and resumed their course, pulling ever with difficulty against the current. And again they were reduced to hunger, and again they were on the brink of despair, when Captain Gifford, who was a little in advance of the others seeking a place to land and make a fire, saw four canoes, and with no small joy he urged his men to try the uttermost of their strength to come up with them. At last they overtook them, as they paddled up a creek off the main stream, and found bread in two canoes, which they captured, and learned that three Spaniards were in the other canoes, one a cavallero, one a soldier, and one a refiner of metals. The bread roused the courage of the hungry men, and "Let us go on!" they cried; "we care not how far!" as they lit fires for the night's encampment. Immediately Ralegh sent Captain Thyn and Captain Gifford in one direction, Captain Calfield in another, to follow the men who had fled away. As he himself was creeping through the bushes he saw an Indian basket which was insecurely hidden. In the basket was a refiner's outfit, quicksilver, saltpetre, and other things to test the quality of minerals, and the dust of ore which had been refined. They could not, however, catch the Spaniards, but they discovered some Arwacas concealed in the woods who had acted as pilots to the Spaniards. Them they questioned, and one they took with them for their own pilot.

Ralegh had no mining tools with him, nor had he come for small and immediate gain. His purpose was no other than to open out the resources of the whole country for England, not to snatch a cargo load of gold. Moreover, a month had passed since they had seen the ships. Time was precious; there was much to be done; "and to stay," he says pithily, "to dig out gold with our nails had been opus laboris but not ingenii." He stayed only to survey the neighbourhood. During his short stay the natives came in numbers to him, and with his usual policy he treated them with elaborate kindness in contrast to the cruelty of the Spaniards. He paid for everything which he used, and took every means to prevent violence to their women, and theft. If the offender was discovered he was punished before the Indians; and, more than that, if an Indian complained of a theft which could not be laid to any man's account, he was paid to the full amount of his loss.

Here Ralegh sent back Ferdinando and the very old man in a canoe with presents for themselves and a message to deliver to the ships, and the company rowed on their way, taking with them as pilot, Martin, the native who was captured from the three Spaniards. But the next day the galley ran aground, and "we were like to cast her away with all our victual and provision and so lay on the sand one whole night, and were far more in despair at this time to free her than before, because we had no tide of flood to help us; and therefore feared that all our hopes would have ended in mishaps. But we fastened an anchor upon the land, and with main strength drew her off."

Then at last, to their great joy, the mountains of Guiana rose before them, and in the evening of the same day a fresh northerly wind sprang up, and before it they passed on till they were brought in sight of the great river of Orinoco, "out of which the river descended wherein we were." As their boats entered the Orinoco they espied three canoes manned by natives, who, when they saw the English, paddled fast away westward towards Guiana, thinking they were Spaniards. The boats, giving chase, came up with one of the canoes, and explained by their interpreter that they were not Spaniards but friends. Thereupon the natives were cordial, gladly gave them fish and tortoise eggs, and promised to bring their chief man to the boats in the morning. In the morning the chief man, whose name was Toparimaca, came with some forty followers, bringing presents of bread and fruit and wine. With him Ralegh conferred about the nearest way to Guiana, and he escorted Ralegh to his own port, and from his port escorted Ralegh and some of his captains to the town, where the captains caroused until they were "reasonable pleasant." The name of the town was Arowocai, and in it was staying a stranger cassique with his wife and retainers. Of this wife Ralegh gives a characteristic description: "In all my life I have seldom seen a better favoured woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of an excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as herself, tied up again in pretty knots, and it seemed that she stood not in that awe of her husband as the rest, for she spake and discoursed and drank among the gentlemen and captains and was very pleasant, knowing her own comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in England so like her as, but for the difference of colour, I would have sworn might have been the same." Toparimaca gave them a pilot, an old man of great experience and travel, who knew his way by day or night on the river, and they rowed on. Without him, mishap would have befallen them, because the river is exceedingly broad, at places extending to twenty miles, and its course is full of wonderful eddies, islands, shoals, currents, and dangerous rocks.

They passed up the great river, sailing, for a wind rose up behind them, along the shore of the island of Assapana, past the river Europa, which poured its waters into the great river; they sailed on ever westward, wide green plains spread out on the right hand, and the banks of the river were a very perfect red. Now they must make all speed possible, for the time was drawing near when the rain would fall, and the river rising, would, by the violence of its current, hinder all further progress. On they sailed, past the high mountains of Aroami and Aio, past the great island Manoripano, until, on the sixth day, they reached the land of that Morequito whom Berreo had slain. They anchored in the port, and Ralegh despatched one of his pilots to the uncle of Morequito, King of Aromaia. In the morning, before noon, the old king came with his followers, walking the fourteen miles to the shore; he was one hundred and ten years old. A little tent had been set up on the shore, and in it the old king rested. When he was rested, Ralegh conversed with him by means of an interpreter. He explained how he had been sent out by his Queen specially to free the land from the tyranny of the Spaniards; he dilated at large on "Her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity to oppressed nations, with as many of the rest of her beauties and virtues as either I could express or they conceive, all which being with great admiration attentively heard and marvellously admired. I began to sound the old man as touching Guiana." They talked for a long space of time, the old king relating memories of his youth, how "there came down into that large valley of Guiana a nation from so far off as the sun slept (Ralegh liked that phrase and mentions it as the old king's own expression), with so great a multitude as they could not be numbered nor resisted; and that they wore large coats and hats of crimson; ... that they had slain and rooted out so many of the ancient people as there were leaves in the wood upon all the trees." When the Christians came, however, they joined forces together and lived at peace, each one holding the Spaniard as a common enemy. And as the old king talked, Ralegh marvelled to find a man of such gravity and judgment and of so good discourse that had no help of learning nor breed.

Then the old king "desired leave to depart, saying that he had far to go; that he was old and weak and was every day called for by death." Ralegh begged him to remain during the night, but he could not prevail upon him to do so; and, though the weather was hot, the old king walked back fourteen miles to his town, having promised to wait upon Ralegh on his return. And that he did not fail to do. It was not for nothing that he was held to be the proudest and the wisest of all the Oroonokoponi.

Still they sailed westward, eager to see the famous river Caroli, which led to the frontiers of the people who were most hostile to Tuga, the Emperor of Guiana, and anchored by the island Caiama. The next day they came, after ten miles, to the mouth of the Caroli; when they were yet far distant they heard the great roar and fall of the river. So violent was the rush of the current that they were unable to make any headway up the stream—not a stone's cast in an hour. Accordingly, a halt was made, and messengers were sent inland to invite the native king to a parley. The king came, and Ralegh discoursed with him about the purpose of his coming and his Queen's goodness and beauty; and learned from him about his people and country. By this time, all the rivers having risen five feet and more, further progress became impossible; and Ralegh, dividing his company into bands, sent them inland in every direction to explore. He himself went to the top of the first hills of the plain adjoining the river, and in the distance the celebrated falls of the Caroli were visible. "There appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had all been covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the first for a smoke that had arisen over some great town. For my own part I was well persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the strange thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little and little till we came into the next valley where we might better discern the same." The men of each band returned and brought with them stones and minerals, lustre, marquesite crystal, and stones that resembled sapphire.

Ralegh, as he looked at the stones and heard the reports of the wonderful fertility and resources of the land which lay in splendid expanse around him, must have felt within him that his dream of El Dorado was at last realized. Indeed, it seemed that he had only to come out and take possession.

But now "the fury of Oroonoco began daily to threaten us with dangers ... for no half day passed but the river began to rage and overflow very fearfully and the rains came down in terrible showers, and gusts in great abundance, and withal our men began to cry out for want of shift, for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that which he wore upon his back, and that was thoroughly washed on his body for the most part ten times in one day; and we had now been well near a month, every day passing to the westward farther and farther from our ships. We therefore turned towards the east and spent the rest of the time in discovering the river towards the sea which we had not yet viewed and which was most material."