Disputed Terri- which comprises the Orinoco and Essequibo rivers and tory was discov

ered, explored, set the region lying between.

tled and possessed by Spain.

Spain effectually controlled it.

She successfully repelled all invaders.

Raleigh's expeditions.

3.-SPAIN'S EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF GUIANA.

While the above facts might safely be allowed to stand by themselves, the completeness and effectiveness of Spanish control in Guiana cannot fail to be emphasized if the ineffectual attempts of other nations to dispossess her be considered. At times these attempts were open, and were attended with bloodshed and loss of life; at other times they were surreptitious, those engaged in them limiting themselves to trading with the Indians and to the quiet occupation of a bit of coast or river bank. All these attempts were unavailing.

Foreign armies, foreign traders, and foreign settlers were all driven from Guiana, and though at times the Spaniards suffered defeat at the hands of these invaders, and though Santo Thomé was more than once taken pillaged and destroyed, yet, in the end, the invaders were invariably repulsed, and Spain remained mistress of the province.

The strength of Spain in Guiana, her exercise of dominion there by the exclusion of other nations, and her subjugation of the native inhabitants, were facts-facts which in those days England attempted to dispute, but to the truth of which the strongest witnesses are the very Englishmen whom she put forward in that attempt, and who, at that time, represented the strength, the chivalry and the enterprise of that great nation.

mous.

Of all foreign adventurers, Raleigh was the most faHis expeditions were the best planned and the best manned. His ambition, ability and resources were greater than those of any other foreigner who ever attempted to penetrate into the interior of Guiana, and

his failure to accomplish this was the most signal of which any record remains.

His expedition of 1595 was somewhat in the nature of a preliminary survey. He went quietly up the Ori noco as far as the Caroni, avoiding the Spaniards and intent merely upon reaching the fabled "Manoa del Dorado." In his enterprise he endeavored to enlist the Indians of that region, but he found that they had been so subdued by the Spaniards that they would not lift hand against them except by secret murder. A chief was found ready to guide him to the mines of Guiana, provided Raleigh would leave in his town men enough to protect it against the Spaniards, but this Raleigh was unable to do, as it would have required more than his entire force.*

Of another Indian town he says that ten Spaniards dwelt there; and that the Chief was, therefore, afraid to have anything to do with the English. Finally Raleigh was obliged to abandon his project of getting into the interior, because, having only fifty soldiers, "the rest being labourers and rowers," he could not leave a sufficient guard with proper equipment on the river; for that "without those thinges necessarie for their defence, they shoulde be in daunger of the Spaniardes in my absence."+

In 1596 Keymis visited this region, and talked with the Indian chiefs. From them he heard how they hated the Spaniards, but the Indians refused further intercourse than a little secret talk "least perhaps some Spie might inform the Spaniards thereof, whereby danger would grow to Carapana."

Commenting upon this Keymis adds:

* Raleigh (sir W.) Discovery of Guiana. Schomburgk edition, London, 1848, pp. 92, 93, 98.

Same, pp. 92, 149.

Raleigh's expeditions.

66

By this I perceiued that to stay longer for him would be purposelesse."*

Raleigh was never able to get assistance from the natives. In his last expedition he did not even try. Two Englishmen whom he left in Guiana in 1595 to foment friendship for England and hatred towards Spain, came to an untimely end: as soon as the Spaniards heard of them, an order was issued for their arrest; one of them was at once seized, and the other would doubtless have shared his fate had he not already been destroyed by a tiger.

Down on the coast Keymis found further proof of Spanish power over the Indians. Speaking of his experiences with the natives in that quarter he says:

"It was long time before wee could procure them [the Indians] to come neere vs, for they doubted least wee were Spanish."

And he adds that the Indian chief informed him that the Arwacas

"doe for the most part serue and follow the Spanyards."t

From Keymis, also, we have a statement showing the strength of Santo Thomé in 1597, and the character of the fortifications on the island of Faxardo.

Keymis states that on the approach of the Englishmen the Spaniards stationed themselves at the mouth of the Caroni

"to defend the passage to those mines from whence your Oare and white stones were taken the last yeere: Wee all not without griefe see ourselues thus defeated, and our hungry hopes thus made voyde."

Keymis concludes his account thus:

"Sorie I am, that where I sought no excuse, by the Spaniardes being there I found my defeat remedilesse."

* Hakluyt (R.) Principal navigations, etc., edited by E. Goldsmid. Edinburgh, 1890, vol. xv, p. 77.

+Same, xv, p. 60.

Same, xv, pp. 69, 70, 80.

Immediately on his first return from Guiana, and plan-Raleigh's expening for a second expedition, Raleigh wrote:

"For wee are not to goe as Cortez, Pisarro, or the other conquerors against a naked vnarmed people (whose warrs are resembled by some to the childrens play called Iogo di Canne [Juego de Cañas]). Butt we are to encounter with the Spaniards, armed in all respectes, and as well practised as ourselves".*

In 1611 he was engaged in preparing another expedition, and in his "Proposals" of that year he undertook to send Keymis with such men

"as should be able to defend him against the Spaniards inhabiting vpon Orenoke if they offered to assaile him (not that itt is meant to offend the Spaniards there or to beginne any quarrell with them except themselves shall beginne warre).

To knowe what number of men shall be sufficient may itt please your Lordshipps to informe your selves by Captaine More, a servant of Sir John Watts, who came from Orenoke this last spring, and was oftentimes ashore att St. Thome, where the Spaniards inhabite."

This expedition, however, never took place. It was merged in the final one of 1617.‡

This last expedition of 1617 carried 121 pieces of ordnance in one squadron of seven vessels, joined presently by seven more vessels; and 400 men were sent up the Orinoco to Santo Thomé.§

Raleigh noted that no small part of the Spanish strength was due to the ease with which the Commandant of Guiana could obtain reinforcements from Cumaná and the other provinces.

The expedition started up the river. Santo Thomé and a stronghold twenty-five miles below it, marked on

* Raleigh (sir W.) Discovery of Guiana. Schomburgk edition, London, 1848, p. 149.

Same, pp. 165, 166; Rodway (J.) and Watt (T.) Annals of Guiana. Georgetown, 1888, vol. i, p. 57.

Same, pp. 167 et seq.

§ Same, pp. 172-4.

Same, pp. 93, 149, 211-216.

1611.

1617.

tions.

Raleigh's expedi- the maps as "old Guayana," were the keys to the whole interior. The Santo Thomé which made Keymis retreat in 1596 was of itself a sufficient protection to the interior. Raleigh in 1595 had pointed out that two small forts on and near the bluff twenty-five miles below, at the place where old Guayana Castle still stands, would close both the river and the country to all commerce, no matter how strong. *

1617.

Raleigh's defeat.

Dutch witnesses of Spain's control of Guiana.

When he started on his final expedition in 1617, Raleigh believed that the Spaniards had not occupied the latter place. His plan was to land at the lowest and nearest available point on the river, and thence push for the mines, thus avoiding Santo Thomé; but his forces found there a town of 140 houses, a church and two convents, defended by 57 men, well armed and with some ordnance, commanded by the Governor of the Province assisted by a valiant officer, Captain Geronimo de Grados. The English had 400 men. They took the place at the cost of young Raleigh's life; held it twentysix days; heard that Spanish re-inforcements were approaching; plundered it; burned it, and retreated.†

The expedition was ruined. Keymis, who commanded for Raleigh, committed suicide; and Raleigh went back to England, and to the block.‡

The most brilliant commander of England had tried for twenty years to penetrate Guiana. He had failed because the Spaniards held it, and held it too strongly for him.

But witnesses to the strength of the Spaniards in Guiana and to their effective occupation of that province are not confined to Englishmen alone.

Cabeliau, clerk of the Dutch Expedition to the coast

* Raleigh (Sir W.) Discovery of Guiana. Schomburgk edition, London, 1848, p. 115.

Same, pp. 210-216.

Same, pp. 217, 222.