D'Ortal arrived in Paria with two hundred men in October, 1534, and was joyfully received by Alonzo de Herrera and his company of about thirty men. He at once began preparations to explore the Orinoco, and "find there that province of Meta, of which he had learned through the natives that it was a land of great wealth."[1] But, mindful of the experience of his predecessors, he sent thither only a part of his force (one hundred and thirty men) under the command of Alonzo de Herrera, with nine galleys and a caravel. Herrera was to establish himself at the upper end of the delta of the Orinoco, among the Aruas (Waruas or Aruaks), while D'Ortal should wait in Paria for the arrival at the West India Islands of the reinforcement of a hundred men, which Juan Fernandez de Alderete was to bring him from Spain. The reinforcement came to Cubagua, and D'Ortal went there to receive it. Then, in the year 1535, he returned to Paria.[2] Thence he went to Trinidad, and sent a detachment of his men back to the coast to unload a ship that was waiting there with provisions. Ten leagues from Trinidad they found three small boats, and in them, to their no little surprise, the dwindled remnant of the expedition of Alonzo de Herrera.
That valiant and adventurous officer, of whom Oviedo says that "he knew much better how to kill
- ↑ Oviedo, lib. xxiv. cap. vii.
- ↑ According to Oviedo there were two San Miguels: the "house of contention," where D'Ortal landed, "en aquel golpho é costa de Paria" (lib. xxxiv. cap. viii.); and the later San Miguel de Neveri, east of Piritú. Oviedo and Herrera do not agree concerning the latter post.
