The Discovery of Guiana | Page 3

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, 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 they are for the most part, so mountainous, full of woods,
rivers, and marishes. In the port towns of the province of Venezuela, as
Cumana, Coro, and St. Iago (whereof Coro and St. Iago were taken by
Captain Preston, and Cumana and St. Josepho by us) we found not the
value of one real of plate in either. But the cities of Barquasimeta,
Valencia, St. Sebastian, Cororo, St. Lucia, Laguna, Maracaiba, 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 Hacha, St. Martha, and Carthagena, which are the ports of
Nuevo Reyno and Popayan, there are besides within the land, which are
indeed rich and prosperous, the towns and cities of Merida, Lagrita, St.
Christophoro, the great cities of Pamplona, Santa Fe de Bogota, Tunxa,
and Mozo, where the emeralds are found, the towns and cities of
Marequita, Velez, la Villa de Leiva, Palma, Honda, Angostura, the
great city of Timana, Tocaima, St. Aguila, Pasto, [St.] Iago, the great
city of Popayan itself, Los Remedios, and the rest. If we take the ports
and villages within the bay of Uraba in the kingdom or rivers of Darien
and Caribana, the cities and towns of St. Juan de Rodas, of Cassaris, of
Antiochia, Caramanta, Cali, and Anserma have gold enough to pay the
king's part, and are not easily invaded by way of the ocean. Or if
Nombre de Dios and Panama be taken, in the province of Castilla del
Oro, and the villages upon the rivers of Cenu and Chagre; Peru hath,
besides those, and besides 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 the repetition
at this time, seeing that in the said treatise I have anatomized the rest of
the sea towns as well of Nicaragua, Yucatan, Nueva Espana, and the
islands, as those of the inland, and by what means they may be best
invaded, as far as any mean judgment may 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 shall 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, could have laid hands on and
ransomed many of the kings and caciqui 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
forslow (neglect, decline, lose through sloth) 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, overrun in every part the following discourse, in which I
have neither studied phrase, form, nor fashion; 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.

TO THE READER
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