[1] The expedition set out in February 1595 to explore the Orinoco River on the northeast tip of South America in an attempt to find the fabled city of El Dorado.

[3] Despite the presence of a Spanish force shadowing him, Raleigh successfully navigated the river and inlets, penetrating some 400 miles (640 km) into the Guiana highlands.

[2] With England at war with Spain in 1585, English privateers had set out to raid Spanish and Portuguese possessions and shipping, and conduct illicit trading.

Sir Walter Raleigh had enjoyed several years of high esteem from Queen Elizabeth I, which stemmed in part from his previous exploits at sea which included the famous Capture of the Madre de Deus.

[8] Raleigh's fascination began when he captured Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the Spanish governor of Patagonia, in a raid in 1586, who, despite Spain's official policy of keeping all navigational information secret, shared his maps with English cartographers.

In addition, he hoped to establish an English presence in the Southern Hemisphere that could compete with that of the Spanish and to try to reduce commerce between the natives and Spaniards by forming alliances.

When questions were raised about El Dorado, De Berrío got angry and ordered the execution of the small English party, but Whiddon was allowed to leave to tell the tale to Raleigh.

[1] Raleigh immediately organised an expedition in late 1594, of which the first goal was to try and capture de Berrío, who was using the island for the purpose of the exploration of the Orinoco River.

Having successfully done so Raleigh was sailing near the Canary Islands where off Tenerife a Spanish ship was captured; the cargo was emptied of which a large amount of firearms was taken.

[13] Raleigh had planned to descend on the Spanish colony of Trinidad – in particular the principal settlement of San José de Oruña, founded by Berrio in 1592.

[1] Raleigh interrogated de Berrio and was told what he knew about Manoa and El Dorado, but then tried to discourage the Englishman from continuing on his quest, but his warnings were in vain.

This rumor turned out to be true; a Spanish force led by a Captain Felipe de Santiago, one of Berrio's trusted officers, with a number of canoes set out from his base at Margarita Island and attempted to shadow Raleigh's expedition.

[19] The English entered the Orinoco river basin but the waters were sometimes too shallow and thus the Gallego was modified even more to compensate; and in addition a few rafts were built to reduce weight.

As the jungle got denser the crew had to hack their way through but a few men became bewildered, including an Indian guide by the name of Ferdinando who vanished, either having escaped or being captured by local natives.

[19] On April 27, the Spanish under Santiago, who were still shadowing Raleigh's expedition, decided to surprise the English when their rear echelon became separated after getting fresh water.

[22] A large village was found, possibly near present-day Ciudad Guayana,[23] ruled by an aged chieftain named Topiawari – Raleigh made friends by announcing that he was an enemy of the Spanish, who were widely detested by the natives.

His scouts brought back rocks, hoping that further analysis would reveal gold ore.[4] As they pushed further Raleigh noted a change on the landscape and described a tepuy (table top mountain).

In addition, Raleigh observed around twelve waterfalls but noted the largest "higher than any church spire" he had seen—they disembarked and walked on foot to get a closer view and described the surrounding area as the most beautiful he had seen.

[29] Having joined the other crew left there, Raleigh set off back to Trinidad but on his way learnt from a cacique of a gold mine near Mount Iconuri and sent Lawrence Keymis with a small detachment to investigate.

[30] Raleigh returned to San Jose and remarkably, apart from the crocodile attack, he had lost no men to disease; in fact his crew was fairly healthy, partly because of the native Indian diet.

[30] With these claims Raleigh was infuriated and decided to then write and publish an overblown account of the expedition under the title of The Discovery of rich and beautiful empire of Guiana, a work that somewhat exaggerated the whole region.

[8] After being released from prison by order of King James I in 1617, Raleigh returned to continue his quest for El Dorado on a second expedition but was to avoid any conflict with the Spanish.

Kemys remounted the Orinoco river and Watt was killed in a battle with the Spaniards as they destroyed and sacked the Spanish settlement at Santo Tome de Guayana.

[2] By the early 19th century, as more explorers came to the region, Lake Parime's existence was definitively disproved and there was a theory that the seasonal flooding of the Rupununi savannah may have been misidentified as such.

[38] The gold mine at El Callao (Venezuela), started in 1871 a few miles south of Orinoco River, was for a time one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883.