Walter Ralegh, Discoverie of Guiana

Katharine Craik (Oxford Brookes University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1596

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Guidebooks / Travel writing

Resources

The Discoverie of Guiana relates Sir Walter Ralegh's first voyage under royal commission into the Amazon basin in search of the mythical region of El Dorado and the golden city of Manoa. According to legend, Manoa was situated on a 200-league salt-water lake in the upper Amazon where much colonial activity had already taken place in the 1580s and 1590s. Ralegh was not the first to lead an exploration down the Orinoco River into present-day Venezuela in search of “abundance of Golde”, and The Discoverie details the recent invasion and suppression of neighbouring territories by the Spanish conquistadors. Ralegh's geographical and topographical survey was designed to function as an advertisement for English trade and …

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1050 words

Citation: Craik, Katharine. "Discoverie of Guiana". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5573, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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