The Spaniards had a settlement called San José on the island of Trinidad, and at that time the governor was an officer of some distinction. Don Antonio Berreo had married a daughter of Gonzalo Jimenes de Quesada, the famous conqueror of Nueva Granada. Berreo had made a very remarkable journey from Bogota, by descending the rivers Meta and Orinoco; and he was only waiting for the arrival of his son from Bogota to undertake the establishment of a settlement on the Orinoco River.
Ralegh's first step was the capture of the Spanish town of San José. This was done by break of day, and Berreo was taken prisoner. His captor treated the governor with all possible respect as an honoured guest, and received from him as much information respecting Guiana as he possessed: but Berreo vainly attempted to dissuade Ralegh from attempting to ascend the Orinoco.
The ships were to be left at Trinidad, and the ascent of the river was to be undertaken by a hundred men with provisions for a month. The little flotilla consisted of an old galley, a barge, two wherries, and the long-boat of the Lion's Whelp. Ralegh himself, with most of the volunteers and fifty men, were in the galley; Captain Gifford and ten more, in one wherry; Captain Canfield, with young Gorges and eight men, in the other; and the rest, in the two ships' boats.
Reaching the Orinoco delta, Captains Whiddon and Dowglas sounded the Capari mouth, while Captain Canfield examined that of Manamo. The boats then entered the Orinoco, good supplies of cassava bread being obtained from the natives, with whom Ralegh kept on very friendly terms, He was thus able to collect a large amount of valuable information respecting the tribes and the resources of the country. The stories he was told respecting the yield of gold were chiefly from Spanish sources, and were grossly exaggerated; but Ralegh was quite correct in his opinion that Guiana was a gold-yielding country.
The expedition was on the whole successful. The explorers suffered considerably from hardships and privations in the ascent of the river, rowing against the stream, but they got as far as the mouth of the Karoni, and forty miles up that river. The Orinoco was rising rapidly, which obliged them to return. Ralegh's principal native friend was an old chief named Tapiawari, with whom he held long conversations. It was arranged that two volunteers, a man named Francis Sparrow and a boy named Hugh Godwin, should
