"
Orlando, Innamorato, lib. 2, canto 8.]
In the vessel that bore back Tafur and those who seceded from the
expedition the pilot Ruiz was also permitted to return, in order
to cooperate with Luque and Almagro in their application for
further succour.
Not long after the departure of the ships, it was decided by
Pizarro to abandon his present quarters, which had little to
recommend them, and which, he reflected, might now be exposed to
annoyance from the original inhabitants, should they take courage
and return, on learning the diminished number of the white men.
The Spaniards, therefore, by his orders, constructed a rude boat
or raft, on which they succeeded in transporting themselves to
the little island of Gorgona, twenty-five leagues to the north of
their present residence. It lay about five leagues from the
continent, and was uninhabited. It had some advantages over the
isle of Gallo; for it stood higher above the sea, and was
partially covered with wood, which afforded shelter to a species
of pheasant, and the hare or rabbit of the country, so that the
Spaniards, with their crossbows, were enabled to procure a
tolerable supply of game. Cool streams that issued from the
living rock furnished abundance of water, though the drenching
rains that fell, without intermission, left them in no danger of
perishing by thirst. From this annoyance they found some
protection in the rude huts which they constructed; though here,
as in their former residence, they suffered from the no less
intolerable annoyance of venomous insects, which multiplied and
swarmed in the exhalations of the rank and stimulated soil.
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