Antonio de Berrio

Upon his arrival in America, and as governor of Trinidad in 1580–1597, title inherited from his political uncle, the adelantado Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, founder of Bogotá and one of the main characters among the conquistadores of New Granada, will continue with the work begun by him Antonio de Berrio organized several expeditions to Guiana Plateau in his search for the mythical El Dorado.

In 1590 he began his third expedition, managing to sail the Orinoco downstream until reaching the Caroní, that is when Berrío believed he had found the step he was looking for on his way to El Dorado, but in order to continue with the expedition he needed men and food, therefore part towards the Margarita Island in March 1591, before building the Santo Tomé de Guayana fortress, founding site of the current Ciudad Guayana, two exact leagues from the right bank of the Caroní River and take possession of the latter in the name of the king Philip II.

In 1595 Berrío is 68 years old, has spent his formidable heritage on expeditions, neither the governor of Margarita Province nor that of Caracas wanted to help him with new adventures, so he resorts to the crown.

The expedition of Raleigh returns to Trinidad and the liberation of Antonio de Berrio took place at the end of June 1595 in the coasts of Cumana, in a prisoners exchange deal.

As for Raleigh, he wrote a famous book of his days, entitled "Discovery of the great, rich and beautiful empire of Guayana" chronicle of his expedition with Berrio.

Raleigh was only able to contribute the book, no gold, which earned him a death sentence by James I, successor of the deceased Elizabeth I, but execution was put on hold for an indefinite prison in the Tower of London.

After twelve years of captivity, Raleigh regained his freedom, all this time did not serve to forget El Dorado, fever led him to make another expedition in his search that ended in failure and also broke the pact not to damage the Spanish possessions in the new world product of the new policy of alliance of England with Spain, which cost him his head at the hands of an executioner to satisfy the Spanish monarch Philip III on October 29, 1618.