THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. Council. SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S., F.R.S., Corr. Mem. Inst. Fr., Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, &c. &c., President. VICE-ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES MALCOLM, KNT. VICE-PRESIDEnts. -PRESIDE THE REV. H. H. MILMAN, M.A. CHARLES T. BEKE, ESQ., PH.D., F.S.A. CAPT. C. R. D. BETHUNE, R.N., C.B. CAPT. F. P. BLACKWOOD, R.N. MAJ.-GEN. J. BRIGGS, F.R.S. BOLTON CORNEY, ESQ., M.R.S.L. SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S. JOHN FORSTER, ESQ. J. E. GRAY, ESQ., F.R.S. JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ. R. H. MAJOR, ESQ. R. MONCKTON MILNES, ESQ., M.P. CHARLES NEWTON, ESQ. REV. G. C. RENOUARD, M.A. W. B. RYE, ESQ. SIR ROBERT SCHOMBURGK, PH.D., K.R.E., K.S.M. ANDREW SMITH, ESQ., M.D. SIR GEORGE T. STAUNTON, BART., M.P., F.R.S. WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY, ESQ., F.R.G.S., HON. SEC. EDITOR'S PREFACE. How frequently are we reminded of the pleasures of former days by an accidental word, the perusal of a passage in a book, or by the view of a place associated in thought with past enjoyments! Scenes are then recalled to mind which had seemingly faded from the memory. Such was my case as I recently perused Sir Walter Ralegh's 'Discoverie of Guiana.' Every page, nay almost every sentence, awakened past recollections, and I felt in imagination transported once more into the midst of the stupendous scenery of the Tropics. As Her Majesty's Commissioner to survey the boundaries of British Guiana, I explored in 1841 that wondrous delta of the Orinoco: on that occasion I encamped at Punta Barima, visited the Amacura and Aratura, and traversed at a later period the regions which Keymis describes as the site of the gorgeous capital of El Dorado, with the sea b like lake, enlivened by its multitude of canoes; what wonder therefore that I should read Ralegh's descriptions, expressed with such force and elegance, with the greatest delight? When requested by the Council of the Hakluyt Society to edit a reprint of Sir Walter Ralegh's 'Discoverie of Guiana,' although a task more agreeable to my feelings could scarcely have been suggested, yet I hesitated, from a feeling of the difficulty for a foreigner to impart to the required notes and explanations the fluency and correctness of style which such a work deserves. These objections were overruled, and encouraged by the lenience with which some of my former labours have been judged, I commenced this work of love. The text of the Discoverie of Guiana' is here reproduced from the edition of 1596, without any alterations in the ancient orthography or the various spellings of proper names. The original text has invariably been adhered to, except where a typographical error was evident. The work is accompanied by copious notes, the places and circumstances to which the author alludes being identified or explained from the Spanish and other historians, not only of that period but likewise of our own time. The manners and customs of the natives, the |