ough
to meet with four Indian canoes laden with excellent bread. The Indians
ran away and left their possessions, and Raleigh's dreams of mineral
wealth were excited by the discovery of what he took to be a 'refiner's
basket, for I found in it his quicksilver, saltpetre, and divers things
for the trial of metals, and also the dust of such ore as he had
refined.' He was minded to stay here and dig for gold, but was prevented
by a phenomenon which he mentions incidentally, but which has done much
to prove the reality of his narrative. He says that all the little
creeks which ran towards the Orinoco 'were raised with such speed, as if
we waded them over the shoes in the morning outward, we were covered to
the shoulders homeward the very same day.' Sir R. Schomburgk found
exactly the same to be the case when he explored Guiana in 1843.

They pushed on therefore along the dreary river, and on the fifteenth
day had the joy of seeing straight before them far away the peaks of
Peluca and Paisapa, the summits of the Imataca mountains which divide
the Orinoco from the Essequibo. The same evening, favoured by a strong
northerly wind, they came in sight of the great Orinoco itself, and
anchored in it a little to the east of the present settlement of San
Rafael de Barrancas. Their spirits were high again. They feasted on the
eggs of the freshwater turtles which they found in thousands on the
sandy islands, and they gazed with rapture on the mountains to the south
of them which rose out of the very heart of Guiana. A friendly chieftain
carried them off to his village, where, to preserve the delightful
spelling of the age, 'some of our captaines garoused of his wine till
they were reasonable pleasant,' this wine being probably the cassivi or
fermented juice of the sweet potato. It redounds to Raleigh's especial
credit that in an age when great license was customary in dealing with
savages, he strictly prohibited his men, under threat of punishment by
death, from insulting the Indian women. His just admiration of the fair
Caribs, however, was quite enthusiastic:

The casique 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, and taking great pride
therein. I have seen a lady in England so like her, as but for
the difference of colour I would have