was generally drawn to Guiana.
Already some Dutchmen had been trading on the coast for many years, and
it was even reported that they had established a post in the river
Pomeroon, the centre of the province of Caribana. As early as 1542
Flemings had settled at Araya on the coast of Venezuela, where they
collected salt and were left undisturbed as long as the Netherlands
belonged to Spain. Ralegh seems to have purposely ignored the presence
of these people in Guiana, probably to prevent any question of prior
rights on the part of a friendly nation. But, after all, the Dutchmen
could only have been there on their own responsibility, and their
temporary occupation had no meaning from a national point of view.

Now that Guiana was made known, vessels of other nationalities went
trading along the coast, everywhere meeting with a hearty welcome from
the Indians as long as the visitors were not Spanish. They were only so
many additions to their friends--their enemies were confined to Trinidad
and the Orinoco, leaving the whole coast of Guiana to its rightful
owners. In fact, the Spaniards could no more subdue the Caribs of the
Main than they could those of the islands. Only in Trinidad, where the
Arawak was employed against the cannibal, was a settlement made
possible.

Ralegh was unable to carry out his great project, but others were not
backward in attempting to settle in the country. First came Charles
Leigh, who in 1604 founded a colony in the river Oyapok, which failed
partly from the lack of assistance from England and partly from too
great a dependence on the promises of the Indians to supply food.
Sickness followed on starvation, Leigh died, and a mutiny took place,
after which the survivors got back to Europe in a Dutch trader, which
fortunately arrived when all hope of succour had been abandoned. Robert
Harcourt followed to the same river in 1609, like Leigh, getting
promises of assistance from the Indians by using the name of Ralegh.
With their consent he took possession of the country, "by twig and
turf," in the name of King James. This ceremony was performed by first
cutting a branch from a tree, and then turning up a sod with the sword,
thus claiming everything in and on the earth.

Harcourt's colony lasted several years, and in 1613 he received from
James the First a grant of all that part of Guiana lying between the
rivers Amazons and Essequebo, on the usual condition of the fifth of all
gold and silver bein