c word to the Spaniards, and they went eagerly onward, over
a country of broad savannahs which led to seemingly endless forests, where
grew trees of stupendous bulk, some so large that the extended arms of
sixteen men could barely reach around them. A thick net-work of vines and
creepers hung in bright-colored festoons from tree to tree, beautiful to
look at but very difficult to pass. The axe was necessary at every step of
the way, while their garments, rotted with the incessant rains, were torn
into rags by the bushes and brambles of the woodland. Their provisions had
been long since spoiled by the weather, and their drove of swine had
vanished, such of the animals as were not consumed having strayed into the
woods and hills. They had brought with them nearly a thousand dogs, many
of them of the ferocious bloodhound breed, and these they were now glad
enough to kill and eat. When these were gone no food was to be had but
such herbs and edible roots and small animals as the forest afforded.

At length the disconsolate wanderers emerged on the banks of a broad
river, the Napo, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon, issuing from
the northern Andes to seek a home in the bosom of that mighty stream.
Gladdened by the sight, they followed its banks downward, hoping in this
way to find an easier route. Thickets still beset their way, through which
it needed all their strength to open a passage, and after going a
considerable distance a loud and increasing noise met their ears. For
miles they followed it as it gradually rose into a roar, and at length
they reached a place where the stream rushed furiously down steep rapids,
and at the end poured in a vast volume of foam down a magnificent
cataract, twelve hundred feet in depth.

This was the height of the fall as measured by the eyes of the wanderers,
a guide not much to be relied on. The stream itself had narrowed until it
was at this point not more than twenty feet wide, and the hungry wanderers
determined to cross it, with the hope of finding beyond it a country
yielding more food. A bridge was constructed by felling great trees across
the chasm, the water here running through vertical walls several hundred
feet in depth. Over this rude bridge men and horses made their way, only
one Spaniard being lost by tumbling down the giddy depth.

The country beyond the stream proved no better than that they had left,
and the only signs of inhabitants they met were savage and hos