we should have grieved them in their religion at
the first, before they had been taught better, and have digged up their
graves, we had lost them all. And therefore I held my first resolution,
that her Majesty should either accept or refuse the enterprise ere
anything should be done that might in any sort hinder the same. And if
Peru had so many heaps of gold, whereof those Ingas were princes, and
that they delighted so much therein, no doubt but this which now liveth
and reigneth in Manoa hath the same humour, and, I am assured, hath
more abundance of gold within his territory than all Peru and the West
Indies.

For the rest, which myself have seen, I will promise these things that
follow, which I know to be true. Those that are desirous to discover and
to see many nations may be satisfied within this river, which bringeth
forth so many arms and branches leading to several countries and
provinces, above 2,000 miles east and west and 800 miles south
and north, and of these the most either rich in gold or in other
merchandises. The common soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay
himself, instead of pence, with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas
he breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and penury. Those
commanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance shall find
there more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden
images, more sepulchres filled with treasure, than either Cortes found
in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru. And the shining glory of this conquest
will eclipse all those so far-extended beams of the Spanish nation.
There is no country which yieldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants,
either for those common delights of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling,
and the rest, than Guiana doth; it hath so many plains, clear rivers,
and abundance of pheasants, partridges, quails, rails, cranes, herons,
and all other fowl; deer of all sorts, porks, hares, lions, tigers,
leopards, and divers other sorts of beasts, either for chase or food. It
hath a kind of beast called cama or anta (tapir), as big as an English
beef, and in great plenty. To speak of the several sorts of every kind I
fear would be troublesome to the reader, and therefore I will omit them,
and conclude that both for health, good air, pleasure, and riches, I am
resolved it cannot be equalled by any region either in the east or west.
Moreover the country is so healthful, as of an hundred persons and
more, which lay without shi