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The Discovery of Guiana by Sir Walter Raleigh
page 54 of 97 (55%)
while two of the four gave over and ran themselves ashore, every man
betaking himself to the fastness of the woods. The two other lesser
got away, while he landed to lay hold on these; and so turned into some
by-creek, we knew not whither. Those canoas that were taken were loaded
with bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies, which those
Indians, called Arwacas, proposed to carry thither for exchange; but in
the lesser there were three Spaniards, who having heard of the defeat of
their Governor in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, came
away in those canoas; one of them was a cavallero, as the captain of the
Arwacas after told us, another a soldier and the third a refiner.

In the meantime, nothing on the earth could have been more welcome to
us, next unto gold, than the great store of very excellent bread which
we found in these canoas; for now our men cried, "Let us go on, we care
not how far." After that Captain Gifford had brought the two canoas to
the galley, I took my barge and went to the bank's side with a dozen
shot, where the canoas first ran themselves ashore, and landed there,
sending out Captain Gifford and Captain Thyn on one hand and Captain
Caulfield on the other, to follow those that were fled into the woods.
And as I was creeping through the bushes, I saw an Indian basket hidden,
which was the refiner's basket; for I found in it his quicksilver,
saltpetre, and divers things for the trial of metals, and also the dust
of such ore as he had refined; but in those canoas which escaped there
was a good quantity of ore and gold. I then landed more men, and offered
five hundred pound to what soldier soever could take one of those three
Spaniards that we thought were landed. But our labours were in vain in
that behalf, for they put themselves into one of the small canoas, and
so, while the greater canoas were in taking, they escaped. But seeking
after the Spaniards we found the Arwacas hidden in the woods, which were
pilots for the Spaniards, and rowed their canoas. Of which I kept the
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