Days and weeks passed away, yet the vessel did not return; and no
speck was to be seen on the waters, as the Spaniards strained
their eyes to the farthest point, where the line of light faded
away in the dark shadows of the foliage on the borders.
Detachments were sent out, and, though absent several days, came
back without intelligence of their comrades. Unable longer to
endure this suspense, or, indeed, to maintain themselves in their
present quarters, Gonzalo and his famishing followers now
determined to proceed towards the junction of the rivers. Two
months elapsed before they accomplished this terrible journey, -
those of them who did not perish on the way, - although the
distance probably did not exceed two hundred leagues; and they at
length reached the spot so long desired, where the Napo pours its
tide into the Amazon, that mighty stream, which, fed by its
thousand tributaries, rolls on towards the ocean, for many
hundred miles, through the heart of the great continent, - the
most majestic of American rivers.
But the Spaniards gathered no tidings of Orellana, while the
country, though more populous than the region they had left, was
as little inviting in its aspect, and was tenanted by a race yet
more ferocious. They now abandoned the hope of recovering their
comrades, who they supposed must have miserably perished by
famine or by the hands of the natives. But their doubts were at
length dispelled by the appearance of a white man wandering
half-naked in the woods, in whose famine-stricken countenance
they recognized the features of one of their countrymen.
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