In return he told him about his own country and
its great queen, and one day showed him a portrait of Queen Elizabeth,
before which the simple natives bowed themselves as if it were the figure
of a goddess they saw.
Many days were spent with these people, in hunting, fishing, and
exploring, but, ask as they would, they could learn nothing about the land
of gold and the marvellous city they had come so far to seek. The old
chief told him that Guiana had many fertile plains and valleys and had
mines of silver and gold, but the gold-dust king he knew nothing about.
Finally, Raleigh decided to go up the Caroni, three parties being sent to
explore its vicinity, while he with a fourth rowed up the stream. He had
been told of a mighty cataract, which he was very anxious to see, and this
was at length reached, after a long struggle with the strong current of
the river.
The cataract proved to be a series of giant cascades, ten or twelve in
number, in the words of Raleigh, "every one as high above the other as a
church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound of waters made it
seem as if it had been all covered over with a great shower of rain.
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