Chap. VI. VOYAGE OF LOPEZ D'AGUIRRE. 215 



which he undertook across the easternmost chain of the 

 Andes, down into the sweltering valley of the Napo, in 

 search of the land of El Dorado, or the Gilded King. 

 They started with 300 soldiers and 4000 Indian porters ; 

 but, arrived on the banks of one of the tributaries of the 

 Napo, their followers were so greatly decreased in num- 

 ber by disease and hunger, and thei remainder so much 

 weakened, that Pizarro was obliged to despatch Orellana 

 with fifty men, in a vessel they had built, to the Napo, 

 in search of provisions. It can be imagined by those 

 acquainted with the Amazons country how fruitless 

 this errand would be in the wilderness of forest where 

 Orellana and his followers found themselves when they 

 reached the Napo, and how strong their disinclination 

 would be to return against the currents and rapids 

 which they had descended. The idea then seized them 

 to commit themselves to the chances of the stream, 

 although ignorant whither it would lead. So onward 

 they went. From the Napo they emerged into the 

 main Amazons, and, after many and various adventures 

 with the Indians on its banks, reached the Atlantic eight 

 months from the date of their entering the great river.* 

 Another remarkable voyage was accomplished, in a 

 similar manner, by a Spaniard named Lopez d'Aguirre, 

 from Cusco, in Peru, down the Ucayali, a branch of the 

 Amazons flowinof from the south, and therefore from an 



* It was during this voyage that the nation of female warriors was 

 said to have been met with ; a report which gave rise to the Portuguese 

 name of the river, Amazonas. It is now pretty well known that this 

 is a mere fable, originating in the love of the marvellous which distin- 

 guished the early Spanish adventurers, and impaired the credibility of 

 their narratives. 



