A Few Days March Below That Place, The Whole
Waters Of The River Became Confined In A Rocky Channel Not Exceeding
Twenty Feet Wide, While The Rocks Were At Least 200 Fathoms In Height
Above The Water, And Perfectly Perpendicular.
After a march of fifty
leagues along the banks of this river, the Spaniards could find no place
where they might possibly cross over, except at that narrow rocky channel,
where a considerable number of Indians opposed their passage.
Having
driven away these Indians by means of their firearms, the Spaniards
constructed a wooden bridge across between the steep rocks, over which
they all passed in safety.
After crossing the river, the Spaniards penetrated through the woods to a
country named Guema, which was extremely flat and intersected with rivers
and marshes, and in which they could get no provisions except wild fruits;
but after this they came to a country tolerably peopled, in which there
were some provisions. In this place the natives wore cotton vestments, but
in the whole country through which they had hitherto passed, the few
natives they had seen were entirely naked, either on account of the
continual and excessive heat of the climate, or because they had no means
of procuring clothes: The men had only a kind of girdles round their waist,
with some strings tied to their prepuce, which passed between their thighs
and were drawn up to the girdle; and the women wore some slight clouts. At
this place Gonzalo built a bark to serve for crossing the rivers in search
of provisions, and to transport the baggage and the sick by water.
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