In Some Of These Places
They Had To Cut Their Way Through Canes And Reeds With Great Toil, By
Means Of Their Swords And Hatchets; Often Changing From One Side Of The
River To The Other In Search Of An Easier Road.
In this march they were
always accompanied by the bark; and at night the whole party united
together, that they might be able to give mutual assistance in case of
need.
After having penetrated above two hundred leagues, always following
the course of the river, during which space they got only wild fruits and
roots to support them, Gonzalo gave orders to Francisco de Orellana, one
of his captains, to go forwards in the bark with fifty men in search of
provisions; with orders to load his bark with these if he found any,
leaving all the baggage at a place where two great rivers joined,
according to information received from the Indians; and likewise to leave
two canoes in a river which crossed the road to that place by land, to
serve for ferrying over the troops.
Orellana set out accordingly in the bark, and was very soon carried by the
current to the appointed place where the two rivers met; but finding no
provisions, and considering the immense difficulty of going up the river
against a rapid current, he resolved to trust himself to the stream to try
his fortune in that way. He even neglected to leave the two canoes at this
place according to the orders of Gonzalo; and although several of those
who were along with him in the bark urged him to remain according to the
orders of his general, he insisted upon going forwards, even maltreating
Friar Gaspard de Carvajal, who opposed this act of mutiny and desertion
more forcibly than any of the rest.
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