remain to learn the language, and that they should take merchandise into the interior, so as to explore and collect information. A son of Tapiawari returned with Ralegh. The boats reached the sea by the Capari mouth, and the explorers found the ships as they had left them, at Curiapan in Trinidad, and returned safely home.
In this ably conducted expedition, Sir Walter Ralegh showed himself to possess all the qualifications of an explorer. He took great pains, before starting, to inform himself, from every available source, of all that was known respecting the region he was about to explore. He equipped his expedition and selected his companions with great care, and with reference to the work that had to be done. He took every precaution in sounding the different mouths of the Orinoco, in navigating the river, and in his intercourse with the natives, that could suggest itself to a thoughtful leader. He was indefatigable in the collection of all useful information. The result was the publication of an interesting narrative which is read with pleasure and instruction down to the present day. The map was not finished when the book was published in 1596, but it is in the British Museum, and has recently been reproduced.
The Guiana voyage of Sir Walter Ralegh led to many others in the direction both of the Orinoco and of the West Indian Islands. In January, 1596, Captain Laurence Keymis left Portland in the Darling, of London, and again visited the Orinoco. He found that Sparrow had been captured by the Spaniards and taken to Cumana. In the same year Thonmas Masham, in the pinnace Watte, went up the Essequibo.
The most romantic biography of all the Elizabethan worthies is that of Sir Robert Dudley, the repudiated heir of the Earl of Leicester. A gallant soldier, a scientific seaman, a gunner, an engineer, he was above all an enthusiastic explorer. He tells us that, "Having, ever since I could conceive of anything, been delighted with the discoveries of navigation, I fostered in myself that disposition till I was of more years and better ability to undertake such a matter." Yet he was only twenty-one when he sailed for the West Indies in command of an expedition consisting of the Bear, of 200 tons, the Bear's Whelp, and two pinnaces, called the Frisking and the Earwig. He ordered his master, Abraham Kendall, to steer for Trinidad, and, anchoring at Curiapan, he landed with an armed party, and marched through the woods. He was joined by a pinnace from Plymouth, commanded by Captain Popham, and
