The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF GUIANA. 5
adventure and by the hope of discovering the treasures of El Dorado. In 1-j96
the English explorer, Keymis, following in tbe footsteps of Sir Walter Raleigh in
the " Empire of Guaya," that is, in Spanish Guiana, went in quest of the fictitious
lake Manoa, which figures on Raleigh's map as a great sheet of water 200 miles
long, with a city at its eastern extremity, reported to be " the largest in the
world." This map, for the first time published in 1892,* shows the course of the
Orinoco and Amazons rivers, and covers the whole continent from their mouths to
the Pacific coast. Writing in 1595 to Lord Charles Howiird on " the discovery of
the large, rich, and beautiful empire of Guaya," Sir Walter remarks in reference
to the map : " How these rivers crosse and encounter, how the country lieth, and
is bordered, the passage of Camenes, and of Berreo, mine own discoverie, and the
way that I entred, with all the rest of the nations, and rivers, your lordship shall
receive in a large chart or map, which I have not yet finished, and which I shall
most humbly pray your lordship to secret, and not to suffer it to pass your own
hands ; for by a draught thereof all may be prevented by other nations. For
I know it this very yeere sought by the French, although by the way they now
take I fear it not much."
But instead of taking the route of the Orinoco, Keymis ascended the river
Oyapok, which traverses the region that has since become French Guiana. In
1688 la Motte Aigron sailed up the same river a distance of " fifty leagues " from
the sea, in the vain hope of reaching the banks of the Amazons, and perhaps even
of discovering the route leading to the famous region of gold and precious
stones.
So late as 1739 the same mirage of a city with houses of rubies and other
gems was still powerful enough to attract Nicolas Hortsmann, who, following
the course of the Essequibo, penetrated far into the interior.
But regular colonisation had its origin not in adventure but in commerce.
Once settled on the Guiana seaboard, the traders of various nationalities began to
struggle for the ascendancy in the conquered lands, and their respective Govern-
ments took part in these rivalries by organising warlike or plundering expeditions.
Thanks to these expeditions a better knowledge was gradually acquired of the
more favoured districts on the seaboard ; the geographical features of the coast-
lands, estuaries, and watercourses as far as the first rapids, were more accurately
laid down, and some vague notions of the inland regions were obtained from the
reports of the Indians and of the Bush Negroes.
In 1672 Richter made his famous discovery of the flattening of the globe at
its poles. Two years later the Jesuits, Grillet and Bechamel, were sent to Cayenne
to study the physical geography of the country ; but after penetrating to the
territory of the Nurag and Acoqua Indians, these pioneers succumbed to the hard-
ships of the journey. The scientific exploration of the Guianas was thus delayed
till the eighteentn century, when a beginning was made in 1743 and 1744 by
* Sir Walter Raleigh's Karie von Guyana um 1.595, von L. Friedriehsen. Separatabdruck aua
Festschril't dtr Hanibiifgischen Ameriha-Fcier, 1S92. This is a fac-simile of the original preserved ia the
British Museum.