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Such attempts were, however, made at the conquest of the province, about the middle of the sixteenth century. From the promontory of Paria to beyond cape Vela, the early navigators had seen gold ornaments and gold dust, in the possession of the inhabitants of the coast. Those who had cast these figures lived at Cauchieto, a place nearer the Rio de la Hacha.
He there found nations more civilized than those of the Orinoco, but that fed on the flesh of mute dogs. From the promontory of Paria, as far as Cabo de la Vela, little figures of molten gold had been found in the hands of the natives, as early as the years 1498 and 1500. The metal employed by the founders of Cauchieto came from a mountainous country more to the south.
Berrio mentions the often-inundated province of Amapaja, between the confluence of the Meta and the Cuchivero, where he found many little idols of molten gold, similar to those which were fabricated at Cauchieto, east of Coro. He believed this gold to be a product of the granitic soil that covers the mountainous country between the Carichana, Uruana, and Cuchivero.
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