Spanish governor, Berreo, not well pleased at his presence; 'and no
gold in the island save Marcasite' (iron pyrites); considered that
Berreo and his three hundred Spaniards were 'both poore and strong,
and so he had no reason to assault them.' He had but fifty men
himself, and, moreover, was tired of waiting in vain for Sir Walter
Raleigh. So he sailed away northward, on the 12th of March, to
plunder Spanish ships, with his brains full of stories of El Dorado,
and the wonders of the Orinoco--among them 'four golden half-moons
weighing a noble each, and two bracelets of silver,' which a boat's
crew of his had picked up from the Indians on the other side of the
Gulf of Paria.

He left somewhat too soon. For on the 22d of March Raleigh sailed
into Cedros Bay, and then went up to La Brea and the Pitch Lake.
There he noted, as Columbus had done before him, oysters growing on
the mangrove roots; and noted, too, 'that abundance of stone pitch,
that all the ships of the world might be therewith laden from
thence; and we made trial of it in trimming our shippes, to be most
excellent good, and melteth not with the sun as the pitch of
Norway.' From thence he ran up the west coast to 'the mountain of
Annaparima' (St. Fernando hill), and passing the mouth of the
Caroni, anchored at what was then the village of Port of Spain.

There some Spaniards boarded him, to buy linen and other things, all
which he 'entertained kindly, and feasted after our manner, by means
whereof I learned as much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as
they knew, for those poore souldiers having been many years without
wine, a few draughts made them merrie, in which mood they vaunted of
Guiana and the riches thereof,'--much which it had been better for
Raleigh had he never heard.