g men strained their eyes down the stream and sent out
detachments to look for the vessel farther down. Finally, deeming it
useless to wait longer, they resumed their journey down the river,
spending two months in advancing five or six hundred miles--those of them
who did not die by the way. At length they reached the point they sought,
where the Napo plunged into a much larger stream, that mighty river since
known as the Amazon, which rolls for thousands of miles eastward through
the vast Brazilian forest.

Here they looked in vain for the brigantine and the rich and populous
country promised them. They were still in a dense forest region, as
unpromising as that they had left. As for Orellana and his companions, it
was naturally supposed that they had perished by famine or by the hands of
the ferocious natives. But they learned differently at length, when a
half-starved and half-naked white man emerged from the forest, whom they
recognized as Sanches de Vargas, one of Orellana's companions.

The tale he told them was the following: The brigantine had shot so
swiftly down the Napo as to reach in three days the point it had taken
them two months to attain. Here, instead of finding supplies with which to
return, Orellana could obtain barely enough food for himself and his men.
To attempt to ascend against the swift current of the river was
impossible. To go back by land was a formidable task, and one that would
add nothing to the comfort of those left behind. In this dilemma Orellana
came to the daring decision to go on down the Amazon, visiting the
populous nations which he was told dwelt on its banks, descending to its
mouth, and sailing back to Spain with the tidings and the glory of a
famous adventure and noble discovery.

He found his reckless companions quite ready to accept his perilous
scheme, with little heed of the fate of the comrades left behind them in
the wilderness. De Vargas was the only one who earnestly opposed the
desertion as inhuman and dishonorable, and Orellana punished him by
abandoning him in the wilderness and sailing away without him.

The story of Orellana's adventure is not the least interesting part of the
expedition we have set out to describe; but, as it is a side issue, we
must deal with it very briefly. Launched on the mighty and unknown river,
in a rudely built barque, it is a marvel that the voyagers escaped
shipwreck in the descent of that vast stream, the navigation being too
diffi