382 A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



ter sailing eighty leagues, Orel lana arrived at the 

 junction of the two rivers, but met with nothing of 

 what he had been sent for ; being disappointed in the 

 provisions he sought, the trees not bearing any fruit, 

 or the Indians having already gathered it. His re- 

 turn to Pizarro seemed very difficult, if not imprac- 

 ticable, on account of the rapidity of the cuuent ; 

 besides, he could not think of returning, vi'ithout 

 bringing with him that relief so earnestly expected; 

 so that, after long debating the matter with himself, 

 he determined, without the privity of his compa- 

 nions, to sail with the current to the ?ea. But this 

 could not long remain a secret, the hoisting the sails 

 sufficiently demonstrating his intentions; and some 

 vehemently oppf'singsnch a dcsertion,as they called it, 

 were near coming to blows. But at length Orellana, 

 by plausible reasons and magnificent promises, paci- 

 fied them ; and the opposition ceasing, he continued 

 his voyage, after setting ashore Hernando Sanchez de 

 Vargas to perisl; with hunger, as being the ring-leader 

 of the malecontents ; and persisting in his invectives 

 against Orellana's project. 



PiZARKo, surprised at having no account of Orel- 

 lana, marched by land to the place vv'here he had or- 

 dered him, and near it met with Hernando Sanchez 

 de Vargas, who acquainted him with the vvhole af- 

 fair of the vessel ; at which Pizarro seeing him- 

 self without resource, a considerable part of his men 

 dead, the other so exhausted with fatigue and hun- 

 ger that they dropt down as they marched, and 

 those in the best state reduced to mere skeletons ; he 

 determined to return to Quito, which, after fatigues 

 and hardships even greater than the ic">rmer, lie at 

 last reached with a handful of men in the year 1542, 

 having only reconnoitred sonic rivers, and the ad- 

 jacent country; a service dispropcrtionjitc to the Iciss 

 of so n)any men, and the miseries sutfered in this 

 enterprise. 



This 



