quest, and may recal them when you can safely give them employment, and confer upon them whatever benefits you may be disposed to give." Linasco also besought him not to take with him his mistress D. Ines de Atienza, a beautiful widow. The thing itself, he said, was wrong; it was an ill example for his people, and might draw after it worse consequences than he could suppose; and he offered to provide a proper situation for her, and to manage the business so that she should not suppose it was by Orsua's will that she was left behind. His advice was given in vain; Orsua indeed sent back Don Martin, but he persevered in his intention of taking Ines with him, and returned no answer to Linasco's letter.

In other respects Orsua proceeded with great prudence. While the brigantines and other vessels were on the stocks, he sent forward his friend and -confidant Garcia de Arze with thirty men, ordering him to proceed about twenty leagues down to the province of the Caperuzos, or hooded Indians, there to collect what provisions he could, and wait for Juan de Vargas; proceed with him to the river Cocama, and there remain, laying in whatever stores that part of the country could supply, till the rest of the expedition joined them. Instead of adhering to these instructions, Arze went above two hundred leagues down, past the mouth of the Cocama, and of many other streams, and then landed on an island of the river, which was called Garcias after his name. His men arrived here, hungry and half-starved, they had been glad to eat caymans upon the way, which he killed with his harquebuss, for he was famous for his skill as a marksman. Here they fortified

P. Simon, 6. 4. § 1.

themselves with a palisade, and the natives, after suffering severely in repeated attacks, sent a party with a present of provisions, as a peace-offering. These adventurers always suspected treachery, because they were always ready to perpetrate it themselves: they got these unsuspicious Indians into a hut, fell upon them, and massacred above forty. This act of cruelty terrified the whole country; all who thought themselves within reach of the Spaniards abandoned their dwelling-places, and Arze was thus enabled to procure subsistence for his people for three months, till Orsua joined him here.t

Vargas and his detachment set out in one of the brigantines as soon as it was completed, and in canoes. Disappointed of meeting Arze, they advanced to the Cocama, and there, pursuant to his instructions, their leader, leaving the less able hands in the brigantine, turned up that river to seek for provisions. He rowed up twoand-twenty days, without finding any thing more than sufficed for immediate use; then some better settlements were found, where there was abundance of maize. Vargas took all that could be embarked in all the canoes he could find, carried off as many of the inhabitants as he could, both male and female, for the use, as it was called, of the expedition! and then returned to the brigantine, where in the mean time three Spaniards and many Indians had died of hunger and the unwholesome climate. They remained two long months expecting Orsua: the patience of the men was worn out; some proposed to kill Vargas, and make their way up the Cocama to Peru, others thought it better to leave him there, and go on to make

† P. Simon, 6. 4. § 2. 3.

discoveries, for they were more than a hundred, and thought themselves strong enough. But no bolder spirit took the lead among them, and their plans of mutiny and murder proceeded no farther.*

Orsua meantime had so won the settlers at Santa Cruz by his generous qualities, that they one and all consented to abandon the settlement, and share his fortunes. But when his vessels were launched and loaded, six of his new flat-bottomed barks proved useless; the wood had not been seasoned, indeed in that wet country it had not been possible to season it; it was brittle also, and when the barks were hauled ashore to be repaired, they cracked in such a manner as to render any repair hope less. To remain was ruinous, when every day's delay would consume provisions which could not be replaced. They were compelled therefore to leave behind great part of their baggage and most of their live stock, and of three hundred horses could only embark forty; the rest were abandoned there to run wild. The men clamoured loudly at thus losing the little property they possessed, and insisted upon rather returning to Peru. Orsua, however, threatening some and soothing others, flattered them all with hopes of the glorious conquests they were about to make; and added, that the loss was his, not theirs; inasmuch as he, being their leader, was bound to satisfy them amply for all, when it should please God to conduct them to that happy land of which they were in quest. These representations succeeded so

*P. Simon, 6. 5. § 1. 2.

well, that not a single man deserted him.

They departed from the now for. saken settlement on the 26th of September, 1560, and on the second day left the mountains behind them, and entered the flat country. On the third the brigantine touched upon a shoal, and a piece of its keel was bro ken off. The crew were left to repair the damage how they could, and Orsua proceeded to the province of the Caperuzos, where he had sent Zalduendo a few days before him to collect provisions. Two days afterwards the brigantine arrived; it was then thoroughly repaired, and sent forward to join Vargas at the Cocama, for Orsua apprehended that the men there would be discontented at his long tarriance. He with the smaller vessels proceeded more leisurely, landing every night and sleeping on shore, because of the danger there was from shallows and sunken trees in the darkness. A hundred and fifty leagues below the place of his embarkation, the Guallaga falls into the river of the Bracamoros, as it was then called, the Nuevo Maranon of the present maps. These streams rise in the same province, and at little distance from each other; but the latter takes a wide sweep in its course, and is as broad again as the Guallaga where it receives it. Here Orsua halted, and sent a party up the stream in search of food; but the country was uninhabited as far as they thought it prudent to ascend. A hundred leagues farther on they reached Vargas, whose people, since the arrival of the brigantine, had been joyfully ex

J

pecting this junction. The Cocama of that day must be (the Pegueno. From thence they proceeded in great alarm for the safety of Arze, of whom neither party as yet knew any thing.† By this time Vargas's brigantine was rotten, so utterly unserviceable was the timber of that country, and they had scarcely renewed their voyage before it was found necessary to abandon her, and distribute the crew and cargo among the other boats. They past the mouth of the Ucayali, and eight days after their departure from the Cocama reached the island where Arze and his companions had quartered themselves, to the equal joy of both parties. These were the first habitations which they had seen since they left the Caperuzo Indians. The natives here were a strong and wellmade race. They wore a single garment of cotton; its texture was good, and it was painted with many colours. Their principal food was fish, maize, and mandioc, of which they made their banqueting drink; they had potatoes also, and other roots and pulse. Their dwellings were large and square; theirweapon, the wooden spear and throwing stick. Papa was the title of their chief. Here Orsua got more canoes for his people to supply the loss of the brigantine. Here too, finding it impossible to attend to the whole command of such an armament himself, he named Vargas, to be his lieutenant-general, and D. Fer

nando de Guzman to be alferez-general, or chief standard-bearer, and they once more set forth, the whole armament being now reassembled.‡

A little below Garcia's Island the

Napo falls in, by which Orellana entered the great stream. The neighbouring settlements were all deserted, in consequence of Arze's cruelty: food however was found in the fields which they cultivated, and poultry which they had left in their flight, among these latter were European fowls. After some days they came to a settlement called Carari, on the southern bank. Here also the natives fled, but some of them only kept aloof in their canoes watching the strangers, and a cazique came to them, after three or four days, with a present of provisions; beads, knives, and looking-glasses were given him in return, and trade was presently established. Orsua, well knowing of what importance it was that the natives should be their friends, and how probable it was that his own men would soon make them enemies by their misconduct, gave orders that no man upon pain of death should carry on any traffic with the Indians except in his presence, and through his hands, for by this means he would see that all parties were satisfied, and that provisions should be properly distributed to those who were most necessitous. Notwithstanding these orders, some of his people took by violence

what they could find; and during the whole of their voyage through this province, the inhabitants never remained confidently in their habitations, but removed their wives and children, and then came off to them in canoes. *

man, whose

Here Orsua thought it best to halt and send a party into the country for a few days, in hope of hearing some tidings in that direction of the golden kingdom which he sought. Pedro Galeas had the command of this detachment. They went along the shores of a lake which communicated with the river, and found a path leading through the woods, where, just when the time allotted for advancing was at an end, they spied some Indians laden with provisions. These people instantly upon seeing them threw down their burthens and fled, and the Spaniards could only catch one woappearance and language denoted that she was not of any tribe which they had seen before. They understood from her signs, that her country was five days journey distant, and they took her with them to Orsua. That commander had by this time begun to perceive what a set of desperate wretches he had collected together. The first indication of discontent came from a man named Alonso de Montoya; it was discovered that he had laid a plot to steal some of the canoes, and stores for his purpose, and make his way with his accomplices back to Peru. Orsua inflicted no heavier chastisement upon him than to secure him for a time with an iron collar. His mode of punishing other offences was to make the offenders pull at the oar for certain days, a labour which was proba. bly always at other times performed by the unfortunate Indians. This ill

*P. Simon, 5. 6. § 4. 5. 7. § 1. 2

effect followed, that theother soldiers, some perhaps in mere mockery, and others with a worse intent, taunted them at their toil, asking what they were better than galley-slaves. Galeas had brought no intelligence to induce them to strike inland, nor could any thing be learnt from the Indians whom they had yet seen concerning the golden land of the Omaguas. Nothing therefore was to be done but to proceed down the river on their search, after a longer tarriance than had been intended, because here their last wretched brigantine went to the bottom, and they were obliged to collect more canoes. The peopled country continued from the time they reached it at Garcia's Island, about a hundred and fifty leagues according to their computation, which track they supposed to consist of the provinces called Caricuri and Manicuri. Having come from Peru, they did not recollect that this country was too savage to have any division of provinces; these were the names of settlements or of chiefs, and all the inhabitants were of the same tribe. Their villages were some four or six leagues apart, and the whole popula tion was not thought to exceed twelve thousand. Some little gold they wore in ear and nose jewels; fortunately for them it was but little, and their country afforded no temptation to detain these adventurers. plague of insects was very great: gnats of every kind in innumerable swarms tormented the Spaniards.†

The

Improvidently Orsua left this peopled country without inquiring where it ended, or how long the desert continued through which he was to pass. For nine days, therefore, they suffered severely for want of provisions, having only what fish they could catch,

tortoises and their eggs, and spinage and purslane,* which, fortunately for them, the country produced. On the tenth they reached a village. Immediately on their appearance, the women, children, and property, such as it was, were hurried into canoes, and sent down the stream, and the men stood to their arms, ready to defend their houses manfully. Órsua landed at the head of a party small enough to shew that no attack was intended on his part, yet strong enough for security. He advanced at their head, with his harquebuss in one hand and a white cloth in the other, which he held out as a token of peace. The sign was understood, a chief came forward and took the cloth; the Spaniards were led to the square or open place of the settlement, and Orsua, by intelligible signs, requested that lodgings should be allotted to him and his people during their stay in one part of the village, while the inhabitants with their families abode safely in the other. To this they willingly acceded; the strangers were lodged in the best huts, and Orsua gave orders that no man on pain of death should enter the dwellings of the Indians, nor offer them any injury. This place was called Machifaro. The people differed both in language and fashions from the last tribe. They kept tortoises in stews near their houses, securing them by little palisades, and provisions of every kind were abundant.

From hence Galeas was sent a second time to explore the country; he went by water, entered a great lake

upon which he soon lost sight of land, then making for the shore lest he should lose himself, kept coasting along for some days, without seeing any habitation or marks of man, till it was time to return from his fruitless adventure. During his absence, there had been a war at Machifaro. A desert track, of nine days journey in length, even with the help of a rapid stream, was not sufficient interval of distance to keep two savage tribes in peace. The Carari Indians had long been at deadly enmity with these remote neighbours, and now supposing that the passage of the Spaniards would have so alarmed them as to engage their whole attention, they thought it a happy opportunity to wreak their vengeance. Accordingly one night they arrived before Machifaro. Here they perceived marks of the strangers, and therefore delayed their attack till day-break, lest they might rashly provoke enemies whom they had no intention to offend, and whom they knew themselves unequal to cope with. In the morning, seeing that their suspicion was well founded, they retired; but as they began their way up the river, they blew their horns and set up their war cry in bravado, that their enemies might know they had been to look at them. This roused the sleeping tribe, and the chief hastened to Örsua, and besought him to assist in pursuing these invaders. Orsua's new friends had not more claim on him for assistance than his old ones, but destruction was sport to these adventurers, and Vargas, with fifty harquebussiers, was

+ P. Simon, 6, 8. § 12.