This is a Warao tribesman from the coast of Guyana (their territory also extends into Venezuela). The Warao may have been among the first Amerindians ever to travel to London.
It happened like this. In 1616, Sir Walter Raleigh set off on one last search for the golden city of Manoa. As I mentioned before, he often returned from his travels with indigenous people, brought back as 'samples'.
On this last trip, however, he unwisely took the landward route, via the Orinoco, and was soon tangling with the Spanish. As the expedition disintegrated into a bloody brawl, it was obvious that a 21-quest had come to an end. On his return, Raleigh was tried and found guilty of treason.
On 29 October 1618, he was brought before an audience in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Amongst the onlookers were a group of his ‘Guianians’. To them, the ways of their much-bejewelled captors were never more mysterious than now. After a flurry of feathers and taffeta, Raleigh made a great speech, and then knelt before an axeman, and was trimmed of his head. With that swipe came to an end English hopes of a gilded city.
Interesting to imagine what the Amerindians made of the bizarre and bloody rituals of the English ....