fions, and in exploring the country. This was manned with fifty foldiers, under the command of Francis Orellana, the officer next in rank to Pizarro. The ftream carried them down with fuch rapidity, that they were foon far a head of their countrymen, who followed flowly and with difficulty by land.

Deferted by Orellana,

At this diftance from his commander, Orellana, a young man, of an aspiring mind, began to fancy himfelf independent, and transported with the predominant paffion of the age, he formed the scheme of diftinguifhing himself as a discoverer, by following the courfe of the Maragnon, until it joined the ocean, and by furveying the vaft regions through which it flows. This fcheme of Orellana's was as bold as it was treacherous. For, if he be chargeable with the guilt of having violated his duty to his commander, and with having abandoned his fellowfoldiers in a pathlefs defert, where they had hardly any hopes of fuccefs, or even of fafety, but what were founded on the fervice which they expected from the bark, his crime is, in fome measure, balanced by the glory of having ventured upon a navigation of near two thousand leagues, through unknown nations, in a veffel haftily conftructed, with green timber, and by

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very unfkilful hands, without provifions, without a compafs, or a pilot. But his courage and alacrity supplied every defect.

who fails down the Maragnon.

Committing himself fearlessly to the guidance of the ftream, the Napo bore him along to the fouth, until he reached the great channel of the Maragnon. Turning with it towards the eaft, he held on his courfe in that direction. He made frequent defcents on both fides of the river, fometimes feizing by force of arms the provifions of the fierce favages feated on its banks; and fometimes procuring a fupply of food by a friendly intercourfe with more gentle tribes. After a long feries of dangers, which he encountered with amazing fortitude, and of diftreffes which he fupported with no lefs magnanimity, he reached the ocean, y) where new perils awaited him. Thefe he likewife furmounted, and got fafe to the Spanish fettlement in the ifland Cubagua; from thence he failed to Spain. The vanity natural to travellers who vifit regions unknown to the reft of mankind, and the art of an adventurer, folicitous to magnify his own merit, concurred in prompting him to mingle an extraordinary proportion of the marvellous in the narrative of his voyage. He pretended to have difcovered nations for

y) See NOTE XIII,

rich, that the roofs of their temples were covered with plates of gold; and defcribed a republick of women fo warlike and powerful, as to have extended their dominion over a confiderable tract of the fertile plains which he had vifited. Extravagant as thofe tales were, they gave rife to an opinion, that a region abounding with gold, diftinguifhed by the name of El Dorado, and a community of Amazons, were to be found in this part of the New World; and fuch is the propenfity of mankind to believe what is wonderful that it has been flowly and with difficulty that reafon and obfervation have exploded thofe fables. The voyage, however, even when ftripped of every romantick embellifhement, deferves to be recorded, not only as one of the most memorable occurrences in that adventurous age, but as the first event which led to any certain knowledge of the immenfe regions that ftretch eastward from the Andes to the ocean. z)

Distress of Pizarro,

No words can defcribe the confternation of Pizarro, when he did not find the bark at the confluence of the Napo and Maragnon, where he had ordered Orellana to wait for him. He would

2) Zarate, lib. iv, c. 4. Gomara Hift. c. 86. Vega, p. II. lib. iii. c. 4. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. ix. c. 2 5. Rodri guez El Maragnon y Amazonas, lib, i, c, 3.

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not allow himself to fufpect that a man, whom he had intrufted with fuch an important command, could be fo bafe and fo unfeeling, as to defert him at fuch a juncture. But imputing his abfence from the place of rendezvous to fome unknown accident, he advanced above fifty leagues along the banks of the Maragnon, expecting every moment to fee the bark appear with a fupply of provifions. At lenght he came up (1541.) with an officer whom Orellana had left to perifh in the defert, becaufe he had the courage to remonftrate against his perfidy. From him he learned the extent of Orellana's crime, and his followers perceived at once their own desperate fituation, when deprived of their only refource. The spirit of the ftouteft hearted veteran funk within him, and all demanded to be led back instantly. Pizarro, though he affumed an appearance of tranquillity, did not oppose their inclination. But he was now twelve hundred miles from Quito; and in that long march the Spaniards encountered hardfhips greater than those they had endured in their progrefs outward, without the alluring hopes which then foothed and animated them under their fufferings. Hunger compelled them to feed on roots and berries, to eat all their dogs and horfes, to devour the most loathfome reptiles, and even to gnaw the leather of their faddles and fword - belts. Four thoufand Indians, and two hundred and ten Spaniards perifhed in this

wild difaftrous expedition, which continued near two years; and as fifty men were abroad the bark with Orellana, only fourfcore got back to Quito. These were naked like favages, and fo emaciated with famine, or worn out with fatigue, that they had more the appearance of spectres than of men. z)

But, inftead of returning to enjoy the repofe which his condition required, Pizarro, on entering Quito, received accounts of a fatal event that threatened calamities more dreadful to him, that there through which he had paffed. From the time that his brother made that partial divifion of his conquefts which has been mentioned, the adherents of Almagro confidering themselves as profcribed by the party in power, no longer entertained any hope of bettering their condition. Great numbers in despair reforted to Lima, where the houfe of young Almagro was always open to them, and the flender portion of his father's fortune, which the governor allowed him to enjoy, was spent in affording them fubfiftence,

2) Zarate, lib. iv. c. 2 5. Vega, p. II. lib. iii. c. 3, 4, 5, 14. Herrera, dec. 6. lib. vii. c. 7, 8. lib. ix. c. 2- 5. dec. 7. lib. iii. c. 14. Pizar. Vanorez Illuftr. 349. &ɔ.