ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Sixteenth-century romantics such as Antonio de Berrío and Walter Raleigh imagined that the elusive and illusory kingdom of El Dorado might lie near the headwaters of the Essequibo or Branco; but it was not until the early eighteenth century that the first Europeans set foot in this region (Hemming 1978). From about 1720 onwards, a few Portuguese and Dutch slavers and slave traders were taken up both of these rivers to Roraima by Indian guides and paddlers. They returned with turtles, fish and native slaves that they had seized or bartered from the tribes of the upper Rio Branco.
