It is more probable that Bembo is alluding to the Guaranis
at the mouth of the Orinoco, than to the natives near the
mouth of the Gulph of Macaraibo, where Alonzo de Hojeda,
in August 1499, when he was accompanied by Vespucci
and Juan de la Cosa, also found a population having
their residence “fondata sopra Y acqua come Venezia”
(Riccardi’s Text in my Examen crit. t. iv. p. 496). In
Vespucci’s account of his voyage (in which we find the
first indication of the etymology of the term Province of
Venezuela, Little Venice, for Province of Caraccas), he


180 .  §TEPPES AND DESERTS.
only speaks of houses raised upon foundation pillars, not of
habitations in the trees.
Sir Walter Raleigh offers a later evidence of high
authority; he says expressly, in his description of Guiana,
that on his second voyage in 1595, when in the mouth of
the Orinoco, he saw the “fires” of the Tivitives and the
Oua-raa-etes (so he calls the Guaranis) “ high up in the
trees” (Raleigh, Discov. of Guiana, 1596, p. 90). The fire
is represented in a drawing in the Latin edition: “ brevis et
admiranda descriptio regni Guiane,” (Norib. 1599) tab. 4.
