In this way they
journeyed, for many a wearisome week, through the dreary
wilderness on the borders of the Napo. Every scrap of provisions
had been long since consumed. The last of their horses had been
devoured. To appease the gnawings of hunger, they were fain to
eat the leather of their saddles and belts. The woods supplied
them with scanty sustenance, and they greedily fed upon toads,
serpents, and such other reptiles as they occasionally found. *8
[Footnote 8: "Yeruas y rayzes, y fruta siluestre, sapos, y
culebras, y otras malas sauandijas, si las auia por aquellas
montanas que todo les hazia buen estomago a los Espanoles; que
peor les yua con la falta de cosas tan viles." Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 4 - Capitulacion con Orellana, Ms -
Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 6, lib. 8, cap. 7. - Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 3, 4. - Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap.
143.]
They were now told of a rich district, inhabited by a populous
nation, where the Napo emptied into a still greater river that
flowed towards the east. It was, as usual, at the distance of
several days' journey; and Gonzalo Pizarro resolved to halt where
he was and send Orellana down in his brigantine to the confluence
of the waters to procure a stock of provisions, with which he
might return and put them in condition to resume their march.
That cavalier, accordingly, taking with him fifty of the
adventurers, pushed off into the middle of the river, where the
stream ran swiftly, and his bark, taken by the current, shot
forward with the speed of an arrow, and was soon out of sight.
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