WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES- — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 419 



a wounded man did not last half an hour ; and the rebel I.ope de 

 Aguirre killed three soldiers besides. After leaving this settlement 

 we continued downstream 12 days and then came upon another settle- 

 ment of these same Caribs. At this point since there were great 

 storms on the river, which raised huge waves, and there were too 

 many people in the brigantines, still the cruel rebel would not stop 

 to have another built, although the pilots kept telling and advising 

 him to do so, saying that with so many people on board, if they put 

 out to sea they would perish, and so they should stop off and build 

 another. But he did not like his pilots' advice, because he did not 

 want his soldiers distributed in too many places ; so he cleared out the 

 brigantines by putting ashore among those cruel cannibal Caribs 

 over 170 Indian men and women of those we had brought along from 

 Peru for our service, all of them Christians. On this occasion I 

 cannot tell or reproduce the violent reproaches which the Indian men 

 and women uttered and expressed ; weeping each cried to his master 

 "Is this the reward that you give me for the 5, 6, or 10 years I have 

 served you in such and such' a battle and in so many wildernesses 

 and expanses of Peru, searching for the food for you to eat and 

 leaving my birthplace and my home to serve you?" and other laments 

 to break one's heart ; two or three soldiers interpreted their Indians' 

 sentiments, and the rebel Lope de Aguirre ordered them garroted 

 immediately ; so everyone pretended to be satisfied, although he felt 

 otherwise, for it was a life and death matter. 



1212. After leaving this settlement, where those poor Christian 

 Peruvian Indians remained for the cannibal feasts of the Caribs in 

 consequence of the rebel's inhumanity, within 6 days we recognized 

 the ocean tide, which runs over 300 leagues up the river. In a settle- 

 ment there we put the brigantines in condition to navigate at sea ; 

 for cordage and sails, we used the blankets left by the Indians, and 

 whoever had two shirts tried to give one of them. At this settlement 

 the inhuman butcher murdered Juan Lopez Serrato and Monteverde 

 and Juan de Cabaiias. After leaving this settlement we felt the tide 

 more every day ; from the time we first recognized the tide till we 

 sailed out of the river into the ocean, it took 28 days, for a number 

 of times the tide threw us back on the full all we had gained on the 

 ebb. This river is over 60 leagues wide ; but it does not have many 

 arms, as some assert ; I stifled my resentment at such tyranny as his, 

 and observed and noted with particular care. It has over 3,000 islands, 

 and if the brigantines we sailed had not drawn so little water — for 

 they needed only a little over a palm of water, and even so we touched 

 a number of times, and we would jump out into the river and push 



