far within the land) held a gentleman prisoner, who died in his ship,
that was one of the company of Hernandez de Serpa, and saved among those
that escaped; who witnessed what opinion is held among the Spaniards
thereabouts of the great riches of Guiana, and El Dorado, the city of
Inga. Another Spaniard was brought aboard me by Captain Preston, who
told me in the hearing of himself and divers other gentlemen, that he
met with Berreo's campmaster at Caracas, when he came from the borders
of Guiana, and that he saw with him forty of most pure plates of gold,
curiously wrought, and swords of Guiana decked and inlaid with gold,
feathers garnished with gold, and divers rarities, which he carried to
the Spanish king.

After Hernandez de Serpa, it was undertaken by the Adelantado, Don
Gonzalez Ximenes de Quesada, who was one of the chiefest in the conquest
of Nuevo Reyno, whose daughter and heir Don Antonio de Berreo married.
Gonzalez sought the passage also by the river called Papamene, which
riseth by Quito, in Peru, and runneth south-east 100 leagues, and then
falleth into Amazons. But he also, failing the entrance, returned with
the loss of much labour and cost. I took one Captain George, a Spaniard,
that followed Gonzalez in this enterprise. Gonzalez gave his daughter to
Berreo, taking his oath and honour to follow the enterprise to the last
of his substance and life. Who since, as he hath sworn to me, hath spent
300,000 ducats in the same, and yet never could enter so far into the
land as myself with that poor troop, or rather a handful of men, being
in all about 100 gentlemen, soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and of
all sorts; neither could any of the forepassed undertakers, nor Berreo
himself, discover the country, till now lately by conference with an
ancient king, called Carapana (Caribana, Carib land, was an old European
name for the Atlantic coast near the mouth of the Orinoco, and hence was
applied to one of its chiefs. Berrio called this district "Emeria"),