since I had knowledge, by relation, of that mighty,
rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana, and of that great and golden city,
which the Spaniards call El Dorado, and the naturals Manoa, which
city was conquered, re-edified, and enlarged by a younger son of
Guayna-capac, Emperor of Peru, at such time as Francisco Pizarro and
others conquered the said empire from his two elder brethren, Guascar
and Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being favoured
by the orejones of Cuzco, the other by the people of Caxamalca. I sent
my servant Jacob Whiddon, the year before, to get knowledge of the
passages, and I had some light from Captain Parker, sometime my servant,
and now attending on your Lordship, that such a place there was to the
southward of the great bay of Charuas, or Guanipa: but I found that it
was 600 miles farther off than they supposed, and many impediments to
them unknown and unheard. After I had displanted Don Antonio de Berreo,
who was upon the same enterprise, leaving my ships at Trinidad, at the
port called Curiapan, I wandered 400 miles into the said country by land
and river; the particulars I will leave to the following discourse.

The country hath more quantity of gold, by manifold, than the best parts
of the Indies, or Peru. All the most of the kings of the borders are
already become her Majesty's vassals, and seem to desire nothing more
than her Majesty's protection and the return of the English nation. It
hath another ground and assurance of riches and glory than the voyages
of the West Indies; an easier way to invade the best parts thereof than
by the common course. The king of Spain is not so impoverished by taking
three or four port towns in America as we suppose; neither are the
riches of Peru or Nueva Espana so left by 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, Co