ver was
found to glide in a smooth channel, worn out of the rock; and at this
place they constructed a bridge by which they passed to the other side,
and entered into a country called Guema, which was so poor, that they
could only get fruit and herbs to subsist upon. Travelling onwards from
that place, they came to a district where the people had some degree of
civilization, and wore cotton clothing of their own manufacture, and used
canoes. They here built a brigantine, in which, and in some canoes,
procured or taken from the natives, they embarked their sick, with their
treasure, provisions, and spare apparel, under the charge of Francis de
Orellana; while Gonsalvo Pizarro marched by land with the rest of the
people along the river, going every night into the boats. In this manner
they proceeded for about 200 leagues; when one night, on coming to the
river side, in hopes of joining the boats as usual, Pizarro could not see
or hear of them. He and his people were reduced, by this unfortunate
incident, to a state of almost utter despair: In a strange, poor, and
barren country, without provisions, clothing, or any other convenience,
and at a vast distance from their friends, with a prodigious extent of
difficult and dangerous road interposed between them and Quito, they were
reduced to the necessity of eating their horses, and even their dogs. Yet
holding a good heart, they proceeded onwards in their journey for eighteen
months, penetrating, as is said, almost 500 leagues, without ever seeing
the sun or any thing else to comfort them. At length, of the 200 men who
had set out from Quito, only ten returned thither; and these so weak,
ragged, and disfigured, that they could not be recognized. Orellana went 5
or 600 leagues down the river, passing through various countries and
nations on both sides, among whom he affirmed that some were Amazons[94].
From the mouth of that river, Orellana went home to Spain, and excused
himself for having deserted Pizarro, and those who marched by land, by
alleging, that he had been forced down the river by the strength of the
current, which he was utterly unable to stem. By some, this river is named
after Orellana, who first navigated its waters; and others call it the
river of the Amazons, on account of a female nation of warriors, who are
said to inhabit its banks[95].

In the year 1541, Don Stephen de Gama, the Portuguese governor of India,
went with a squadron into the Red Sea, by the st