return, as to have
yielded unto us, when they had proved that we came both for one errand,
and that both sought but to sack and spoil them. But as yet our desire
gold, or our purpose of invasion, is not known to them of the empire.
And it is likely that if her Majesty undertake the enterprise they will
rather submit themselves to her obedience than to the Spaniards, of
whose cruelty both themselves and the borderers have already tasted. And
therefore, till I had known her Majesty's pleasure, I would rather have
lost the sack of one or two towns, although they might have been very
profitable, than to have defaced or endangered the future hope of so
many millions, and the great good and rich trade which England may be
possessed of thereby. I am assured now that they will all die, even to
the last man, against the Spaniards in hope of our succour and return.
Whereas, otherwise, if I had either laid hands on the borderers or
ransomed the lords, as Berreo did, or invaded the subjects of Inga, I
know all had been lost for hereafter.

After that I had resolved Topiawari, lord of Aromaia, that I could not
at this time leave with him the companies he desired, and that I was
contented to forbear the enterprise against the Epuremei till the next
year, he freely gave me his only son to take with me into England; and
hoped that though he himself had but a short time to live, yet that by
our means his son should be established after his death. And I left with
him one Francis Sparrow, a servant of Captain Gifford, who was desirous
to tarry, and could describe a country with his pen, and a boy of mine
called Hugh Goodwin, to learn the language. I after asked the manner how
the Epuremei wrought those plates of gold, and how they could melt it
out of the stone. He told me that the most of the gold which they made
in plates and images was not severed from the stone, but that on the
lake of Manoa, and in a multitude of other rivers, they gathered it in
grains of perfect gold and in pieces as big as small stones, and they
put it to a part of copper, otherwise they could not work it; and that
they used a great earthen pot with holes round about it, and when they
had mingled the gold and copper together they fastened canes to the
holes, and so with the breath of men they increased the fire till the
metal ran, and then they cast it into moulds of stone and clay, and so
make those plates and images. I have sent your honours of two sorts such
as