The Spaniards had ,. settle, uent called San ,]osf on the ish, nd of Trinidad, and at that time the governor was an ocer of nome distinction. ])on Antonio ]{erreo had married a daughter of Gonzalo ,liraeries de Quesada, the famous conqueror of Nueva Granada. erreo had made ve remarkable journey from ]ogot, by descending the rivers Meta and ()riuo; and be was only witing for the arrival of his sou from Bogota to undertake the establishucnt of settlement ou the ()rinoco River.

Ixaleeh s first stc 1, was the capture of the Spanish town of San Jos. This was done hy break of day, and ]crrco was taken prisoner. llis captor treated the governor with all possible respt as an hououred guest, and received from him as much infm-mation respecting Guiana as he possessed: but lerreo vainly attempted to dissuade Ralegh from attempting to ascend the Orinoco.

The ships were to be left at Trinidad, and the ascent of the river was to be undertaken hy a hundred men with provisions for a month. The little ttotilla consisted of an old galley, a barge, two wherries, and the long-boat of the Lion's il'help. ltalegh himself, with most of the volunteers and fifty men, were in the galley; Captain Giflbrd and ten more, in one wherry; Captain Canfield, with young Gorges aud eight men, in the other; and the rest, in the two ships' boats.

l{eaching the Orinoco delta, Captaius Whiddon and Dowglas sounded the Capari mouth, while Captain Canfield examined that of Mananco. The boats then entered the Oriuoco, good supplies of cassava bread lx, ing obtained from the natives, with whom Ralegh kept on vekv friendly terms. He was thus able to collect a large amount of valuable information respecting the tribes and the resore, es of the country. The stories he was told respecting the yichl of gohl were chiefly from Spanish 'sources, and were 'ossly exaggerated; but Ralegh was quite correct in his opinion that Guiana was a gold-yielding country.

The expedition was on the whole successful. The explorers suffered considerably from hardships and privations in the ascent of the river, rowing against the stream, but they got as far as the mouth of the Karoni, and forty miles up that river. The ()rinoco was rising rapidly, which obliged them to return. Ralegh's principal native fiqend was an ohl chief named Tapiawari, with whom Itc hehl long conversations: It was arranged that two vohmtecrs, a man

named Francis Sparrow and a boy named llugh t;odwin. should