harder allowance, our bread euen at the last, and no drinke at all; and our men and our selues so wearied and scorched, and doubtfull withall, whether wee should euer performe it or no, the heat increasing as we drew towards the line: for wee were now in fiue degrees.
The further we went on (our victuall decreasing and the aire breeding great faintnesse) wee grew weaker and weaker, when wee had most need of strength and abilitie: for hourely the riuer ranne more violently then other against vs, and the barge, wheries, and shippes boat of captaine Gifford and captaine Calfield, had spent all their prouisions: so as we were brought into despaire and discomfort, had wee not perswaded all the company that it was but onely one dayes worke more to atteine the land where wee should be relieued of all wee wanted, and if we returned, that wee were sure to starue by the way, and that the world would also laugh vs to scorne. On the banks of these riuers were diuers sorts of fruits good to eat, flowers and trees of such variety, as were sufficient to make tenne volumes of herbals: we relieued our selues many times with the fruits of the countrey, and sometimes with fowle and fish. Wee saw birds of all colours, some carnation, some crimson, orenge-tawny, purple, watchet and of all other sorts both simple and mixt, and it was vnto vs a great good passing of the time to beholde them, besides the reliefe we found by killing some store of them with our fowling pieces: without which, hauing little or no bread, and lesse drinke, but onely the thicke and troubled water of the riuer, we had beene in a very hard case.
Our olde pilot of the Ciawani (whom, as I sayd before, wee tooke to redeeme Ferdinando) tolde vs, that if we would enter a branch of a riuer on the right hand with our barge and wheries, and leaue the galley at anker the while in the great riuer, he would bring vs to a towne of the Arwacas, where we should finde store of bread, hennes, fish, and of the countrey wine; and perswaded vs that departing from the galley at noone, we might returne yer night. I was very glad to heare this speech, and presently tooke my barke, with eight musketiers, captaine Giffords whery, with myselfe and foure musketiers and Captaine Calfield with his whery, and as many; and so we entred the mouth of this riuer: and because we were perswaded that it was so nere, we tooke no victuall with vs at all. When we had rowed three houres, we maruelled we saw no signe of any dwelling, and
asked the pilot where the towne was: he tolde vs a little further. After three houres more, the Sun being almost set, we began to suspect that he led vs that way to betray vs; for hee confessed that those Spaniards which fled from Trinidad, and also those that remained with Carapana in Emeria, were ioyned together in some village vpon that riuer. But when it grew towards night; and wee demanded where the place was: hee tolde vs but foure reaches more. When we had rowed foure and foure, we saw no signe; and our poore water-men, euen heart-broken, and tired, were ready to giue up the ghost: for we had now come from the galley neere forty miles.
At the last we determined to hang the pilot; and if wee had well knowen the way backe againe by night, we had surely gone; but our owne necessities pleaded sufficiently for his safety: for it was as darke as pitch, and the riuer began so to narrow it selfe, and the trees to hang ouer from side to side, as wee were driuen with arming swords to cut a passage thorow those branches that couered the water. Wee were very desirous to finde this towne, hoping of a feast, because wee made but a short breakefast aboord the galley in the morning and it was now eight a clocke at night, and our stomacks began to gnawe apace: but whether it was best to returne or goe on, we beganne to doubt, suspecting treason in the pilot more and more: but the poore olde Indian euer assured vs that it was but a little further, but this one turning and that turning: and at the last about one a clocke after midnight wee saw a light; and rowing towards it, wee heard the dogges of the village. When we landed wee found few people; for the lord of that place was gone with diuers canoas aboue foure hundred miles off, vpon a iourney towardes the head of Orenoque to trade for golde, and to buy women of the Canibals, who afterward vnfortunately passed by vs as wee rode at an anker in the port of Morequito in the darke of the night, and yet came so neere vs, as his canoas grated against our barges: he left one of his company at the port of Morequito, by whom wee vnderstood that hee had brought thirty yoong women, diuers plates of golde, and had great store of fine pieces of cotton cloth, and cotton beds. In his house we had good store of bread, fish, hennes, and Indian drinke, and so rested that night, and in the morning after we had traded with such of his people as came downe, we returned towards our gally, and brought with vs some quantity of bread, fish, and hennes.
A most beautifull countrey. On both sides of this riuer we passed the most beautifull countrey that euer mine eyes beheld: and whereas all that we had seene before was nothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thornes, here we beheld plaines of twenty miles in length, the grasse short and greene, and in diuers parts groues of trees by themselues, as if they had beene by all the arte and labour in the world so made of purpose: and still as we rowed, the deere came downe feeding by the waters side, as if they had beene vsed to a keepers call. The riuer of Lagartos, or Crocodiles. Vpon this riuer there were great store of fowle, and of many sorts: we saw in it diuers sorts of strange fishes, and of maruellous bignes: but for lagartos it exceeded, for there were thousands of those vgly serpents; and the people call it for the abundance of them, The riuer of Lagartos, in their language. I had a Negro a very proper yoong fellow, who leaping out of the galley to swim in the mouth of this riuer, was in all our sights taken and deuoured with one of those lagartos. In the meane while our companies in the gally thought we had bene all lost, (for wee promised to returne before night) and sent the Lions whelps shippes boat with captaine Whiddon to follow vs vp the riuer; but the next day, after we had rowed vp and downe some fourescore miles, we returned, and went on our way, vp the great riuer; and when we were euen at the last cast for want of victuals, captaine Gifford being before the galley and the rest of the boats, seeking out some place to land vpon the banks to make fire, espied foure canoas comming downe the riuer; Two canoas taken. and with no small ioy caused his men to trie the vttermost of their strengths, and after a while two of the foure gaue ouer, and ranne themselues ashore, euery man betaking himselfe to the fastnesse of the woods, the two other lesser got away, while he landed to lay hold on these: and so turned into some by-creeke, we knew not whither. Three Spanyards escaped. Those canoas that were taken, were loaden with bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies, which those Indians (called Arwacas) purposed to cary thither for exchange: but in the lesser there were three Spanyards, who hauing heard of the defeat of their gouernour in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, came away in those canoas: one of them was a cauallero; as the captaine of the Arwacas after tolde vs, another a souldier, and the third a refiner.
END OF VOL. XIV.
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