Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is Not
Extraordinary, Therefore, That Gold Has Disappeared On The Coast Of
Paria, And Among The Nations Of The Orinoco, Their Inland
Communications Have Been Impeded By The Europeans.
The natives who
have remained independent are in our days, no doubt, more wretched,
more indolent, and in a ruder state, than they were before the
conquest.
The king of Morequito, whose son Raleigh took to England,
had visited Cumana in 1594, to exchange a great quantity of images of
massy gold for iron tools, and European merchandise. The unexpected
appearance of an Indian chief augmented the celebrity of the riches of
the Orinoco. It was supposed that El Dorado must be near the country
from which the king of Morequito came; and as this country was often
inundated, and rivers vaguely called great seas, or great basins of
water, El Dorado must be on the banks of a lake. It was forgotten that
the gold brought by the Caribs and other trading people was as little
the produce of the soil as the diamonds of Brazil and India are the
produce of the regions of Europe, where they are most abundant. The
expedition of Berrio which had increased in number during the stay of
the vessels at Cumana, La Margareta, and the island of Trinidad,
proceeded by Morequito (near Vieja Guayana) towards the Rio Paragua, a
tributary stream of the Carony; but sickness, the ferocity of the
natives, and the want of subsistence, opposed invincible obstacles to
the progress of the Spaniards.
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