nd to do us all other services they could. That
night we came to an anchor at the parting of the three goodly rivers
(the one was the river of Amana, by which we came from the north, and
ran athwart towards the south, the other two were of Orenoque, which
crossed from the west and ran to the sea towards the east) and landed
upon a fair sand, where we found thousands of tortugas' eggs, which are
very wholesome meat, and greatly restoring; so as our men were now well
filled and highly contented both with the fare, and nearness of the land
of Guiana, which appeared in sight.

In the morning there came down, according to promise, the lord of that
border, called Toparimaca, with some thirty or forty followers, and
brought us divers sorts of fruits, and of his wine, bread, fish, and
flesh, whom we also feasted as we could; at least we drank good Spanish
wine, whereof we had a small quantity in bottles, which above all things
they love. I conferred with this Toparimaca of the next way to Guiana,
who conducted our galley and boats to his own port, and carried us from
thence some mile and a-half to his town; where some of our captains
caroused of his wine till they were reasonable pleasant, for it is very
strong with pepper, and the juice of divers herbs and fruits digested
and purged. They keep it in great earthen pots of ten or twelve gallons,
very clean and sweet, and are themselves at their meetings and feasts
the greatest carousers and drunkards of the world. When we came to his
town we found two caciques, whereof one was a stranger that had been up
the river in trade, and his boats, people, and wife encamped at the
port where we anchored; and the other was of that country, a follower
of Toparimaca. They lay each of them in a cotton hamaca, which we call
Brazil beds, and two women attending them with six cups, and a little
ladle to fill them out of an earthen pitcher of wine; and so they drank
each of them three of those cups at a time one to the other, and in this
sort they drink drunk at their feasts and meetings.

That cacique that was a stranger had his wife staying at the port where
we anchored, and in all my life I have seldom seen a better favoured
woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of an
excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as herself, tied up again
in pretty knots; and it seemed she stood not in that awe of her husband
as the rest, for she spake and discoursed, and drank among t