Topiawari, Cacique of the Orenoqueponi
Topiawari replaced his nephew Morequito after the latter's execution. The new cacique was older and less aggressive than his predecessor, but he had a more experienced man's cleverness and wisdom.
As I mentioned in my previous article, “The Orinoco Delta,” I like to picture the two as drinking buddies afterwards, but the reality was that Walter Ralegh’s fine old time with Toparimaca was about more than just merrymaking. One of Antonio de Berrio’s uglier policies -taken from the Assyrian playbook- was to push out the indigenous inhabitants of the Orinoco Delta and replace them with allies from the interior. The Lokono, known to the Spanish as Aruaca and to the English as Arawaks, were given new lands in the delta where they developed profitable tobacco plantations as well as a thriving slave trade from capturing rivals like the Warao. In this context, a flamboyant Elizabethan who had plundered Trinidad and held the Spanish governor as his prisoner seemed like someone who could be useful to help counter the threat from the Spanish and the Lokono.
Ralegh had his own reasons for establishing friendly relations with the Indians. He had grand plans that went far beyond navigating the Orinoco, and saw the conquest of Manoa not as an end but as a means. After El Dorado had been dethroned (or taken, if you think it was a city and not a man), then Ralegh would take the Empire of Guiana for England and make the queen an empress. Raleana (yes, that was the name he wanted to go with) would be a benevolent empire, one where Indians would not be enslaved. They were, in fact, essential to his plans. The project of conquest required allies who were native to the region, people who could serve as guides, spies, and soldiers in the English cause. The obvious reality was that Ralegh’s dream probably amounted to no more than great conversation with his hosts, but had the scheme been feasible he would have needed as many friends as he could get. That meant diplomacy.
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