The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana

The Discoverie , by Walter Raleigh, narrates his expedition to South America in quest of an indigenous ‘empire’ in the highlands of Guiana. Military encounters with the Spanish, diplomatic encounters with native kings, and enigmatic encounters with monstrous marvels, are woven into a near-mystic quest for hidden gold. However, because of these apparently fantastical elements, this key text on the European expansion into the Americas remains poorly understood. Newly transcribed and annotated, this edition for the first time provides an anthropological commentary of the original edition of The discoverie and challenges existing evaluations of both Raleigh and of early travel texts more generally.