A Relation of a Voyage to Guiana

1928

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 2 no. 60

London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society

Robert Harcourt (1574-1631) received royal commissions to voyage to Guiana in 1609. Harcourt and crew, aboard three ships, arrived at the mouth of the ‘Wiapoco’ (Oyapock) River (between Brazil and French Guiana) in May 1609. Harcourt stayed only four months while his brother, Michael, stayed on for three years to head the ‘embryo settlement’. First published in 1613, Harcourt’s treatise was expanded by reports from his brother and cousin. A Relation details the geography, people, and natural history of the region; and recalls an occasion of almost mutiny, when the crew’s expectations of finding gold were not realised. The 1609-12 mission failed, as did another attempt at colonisation by Harcourt in 1629.