Here Berreo,
who did not suspect the purpose of the English, talked freely about his
former expedition and gave his captor a good deal of very useful
information. One thing Raleigh learned was that his ships could not be
taken up the Orinoco, on account of the sand-banks at its mouth and its
dangerous channels. He therefore felt it necessary to leave the ships at
Trinidad and cross to the mainland in the boats he had brought with him.
One hundred men were chosen for the journey, the others being left to
guard the fleet. An old galley, a barge, a ship's-boat, and two wherries
carried them, and a young Indian pilot, who claimed to be familiar with
the coast, was taken along. Trinidad lies at no great distance from the
mainland, but stormy weather assailed the voyagers, and they were glad
enough to enter one of the mouths of the river and escape the ocean
billows. But here new troubles surrounded them, the nature of which
Raleigh described later, in his account of the expedition. He wrote:
"If God had not sent us help, we might have wandered a whole year in that
labyrinth of rivers, ere we had found any way.
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