The Discovery of Guiana

The Discovery of Guiana is a book by Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote this account one year after his 1595 journey to Guiana, the Venezuelan region of Guayana. He also visited Trinidad. The book includes some material of a factual nature, but postulates the existence of a gold-rich civilisation (El Dorado) on the basis of little evidence.

Title page of a Latin edition of the Discovery, Brevis & admiranda descriptio regni Guianae, avri abundantissimi, in America, 1599. Note the illustration of headless people.

Full title

As was common practice in this time period, The Discovery of Guiana had a longer name. It was actually called The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden city of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado).^[1] However, today it is generally simply referred to as The Discovery of Guiana.^[2]

Background

Further information: Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition

After enjoying several years of high esteem from Queen Elizabeth I, which stemmed in part from his previous exploits at sea, Raleigh suffered a short imprisonment for secretly marrying one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting.^[3] In an attempt to bring himself back into favour, Raleigh sailed to Guiana in 1595, hoping to find gold and other material to exchange or extort.

Reception of the book

One modern scholar remarks of this journey, "Although the expedition itself was hardly a success—Raleigh conquered no lands, found no stores of wealth, and discovered little not observed by earlier adventurers—he created a triumph for himself by publishing The Discovery."^[4]

Claims versus findings

The title page shows people without necks. Raleigh's dubious report that such people lived in Guiana may have given Shakespeare a line for Othello.

And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.

However, there are references in classical literature to headless men which Shakespeare may have known.

Gold

Guyanese 100-dollar gold coin (1976), commemorating the book and 10 years of independence from British rule

There are gold deposits in Venezuela, but Raleigh appears to have exaggerated how easy it was for him to find gold there. Venezuela's gold was not exploited on a large scale before the 19th century when mines were developed at places like El Callao.

Raleigh having promised Queen Elizabeth a "gold-rich empire more lucrative than Peru",^[5] King James was probably a little more willing to temporarily forgive Raleigh's charge of treason to see if he could find the place he had claimed to have found, and make it profitable. But the scholar argues that this came from Raleigh's prodigious literary skill, wherein he was able to make it sound like he had found much gold, but without ever saying or relating the precise finding of it, or bringing anything back.^[5]

He returned to Guiana in 1617 after a twelve-year imprisonment at the hands of King James I.^[3] On this second voyage, Raleigh's men, under the command of Lawrence Keymis, attacked the Spanish on the river Orinoco on 1617–18. At Raleigh's subsequent trial, he was not only tried for treason against the crown for disobeying King James I's orders to avoid engaging in combat with the Spanish,^[3] but, argues one scholar, also for essentially lying about the abundance of gold to be had in Guiana.^[5][6]

Notes

1. Raleigh, Walter (1596). The Discouerie of the Large, Rich, and Bevvtiful Empyre of Guiana: With a Relation of the Great and Golden Citie of Manoa (which the Spanyards Call El Dorado) and the Prouinces of Emeria, Arromaia, Amapaia, and Other Countries, with Their Riuers, Adioyning : Performed in the Yeare 1595. London: Robert Robinson – via Google Books.
2. The Discovery of Guiana, and the Journal of the Second Voyage Thereto by Sir Walter Raleigh. London, Paris, New York and Melbourne: Cassell & Company, Limited. 1887. Retrieved April 30, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
3. Black, Joseph. "Sir Walter Ralegh." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2009. 334. Print.
4. Head, David M. Rev. of The Discovery of Guiana by Sir Walter Ralegh: With Related Documents, ed. Benjamin Schmidt. The Historian 72.3 (2010): 704. Web. 10 August 2011.
5. Fuller, Mary C. "Raleigh's Fugitive Gold: Reference and Deferral in The Discoverie of Guiana." Representations 33 (1991): 42. Web. 10 August 2011.
6. Jacob Adrien Van Heuvel, El Dorado: Being a Narrative of the Circumstances which Gave Rise to Reports, in the Sixteenth Century, of the Existence of a Rich and Splendid City in South America, to which that Name was Given, and which Led to Many Enterprises in Search of it; Including a Defence of Sir Walter Raleigh, in Regard to the Relations Made by Him Respecting It, and a Nation of Female Warriors, in the Vicinity of the Amazon, in the Narrative of His Expedition to the Oronoke in 1595, J. Winchester, 1844.

See also

• Pitch Lake
• Lake Parime

External links

• The Discovery of Guiana at Project Gutenberg

• History portal