a54 condamine's travels 



of her brothers and other companions, ftupified, delirious, and tormented with choak- 

 ing thirft, at length aflumed refolution and ftrength enough to drag herfelf along in 

 fearch of the falvation which providentially awaited her. Such was her deplorable 

 condition fhe was without Ihoes, and her clothes all torn to rags : Ihe cut the Ihoes . 

 off her brothers' feet, and faftened the foles on her own. It was about the period 

 between the 25th and 30th of December 1769 that this unfortunate party (at leafl: feven 

 of the number of them) perifhed in this miferable manner ; the date I gather by what 

 I learn from the only furvivor, who related that it was nine days after fhe quitted the 

 fcene o£,the wretched cataflrophe defcribed before fhe reached the banks of the Bobo- 

 nafa. Doubtlefs this interval mult have appeared to her of great length, and how a 

 female fo delicately educated and in fuch a ftate of want and exhauftion, could fupport 

 her diflrefs, though but half the time, appears moll wonderful. She afTured me that 

 fhe was ten days alone in the wood, two, awaiting death by the fide of her brothers, 

 the other eight wandering at random. The remembrance of the fhocking fpeftacle fhe 

 witnefTed, the horror incident on her folitude and the darknefs of night in a defert, the 

 perpetual apprehenfion of death, which every inflant ferved but to augment, had fuch 

 effett on her fpirits as to caufe her hair to turn grey. On the fecond day's march ^ 

 the diftance neceflarily inconfiderable, fhe found water, and the fucceeding day fome 

 wild fruit and frefh eggs, of what bird fhe knew not, but which, by her defcription, I 

 conjedlure to have been a fpecies of partridge. Thefe with the greateft difficulty was 

 flie enabled to fwallow, the oefophagus, owing to the want of aliment, having become 

 fo much parched and ftraitened ; but thefe and other food fhe accidentally met with, 

 fufEced to fupport her fkeleton frame. At length, and not before it was indifpenfable, 

 arrived the fuccour defigned for her by providence. 



Were it told in a romance that a female of delicate habit, accuflomed to all the com- 

 forts of life, had been precipitated into a river ; that, after being withdrawn when on 

 the point of drowning, this female, the eighth of a party, had penetrated into unknown 

 and pathlefs woods, and travelled in them for weeks, not knowing whither fhe direded 

 her fleps ; that, enduring hunger, thirfl, and fatigue to very exhauflion, flie fhould 

 have feen her two brothers, far more robufl than her, a nephew yet a youth, three 

 young women her fervants, and a young man, the domeflic left by the phyfician who 

 had gone on before, all expire by her fide, and fhe yet furvive ; that, after remaining 

 by their corpfes two whole days and nights, in a country abounding in tigers and num- 

 bers of dangerous ferpents, without once feeing any of thefe animals or reptiles, fhe 

 fhould afterwards have flrength to rife, and continue her way, covered but with tatters, 

 through the fame pathlefs wood for eight days together till fhe reached the banks of 

 the Bobonafa, the author would be charged with inconfiflency ; but thehiflorian fhould 

 paint fafts to his reader, and this is nothing but the truth. The verity of this mar- 

 vellous tale is attefted by original letters in my hands, from many mifhonaries on the 

 Amazons who felt an intereft in this event, and by other proofs as will be feen in the 

 fequel of this narrative. Thefe misfortunes would have been avoided altogether but 

 for the infidelity of Triftan, but for his negleft, in heu of flopping at Loreto, of deli- 

 vering as inftruded, in perfon, my letters to the Superior at Laguna ; with this precau- 

 tion on his part my wife would, as her father had done, have found the village of 

 Canelos" peopled with natives, and a canoe ready to convey her forwards 



To return, it was on the eighth or ninth day, accprding to Madame Godin, after 

 jeaving the dreadful fcene of the death of her companions, that fhe found herfelf on 

 the banks of the Bobonafa. At day-break fhe heard a noife at about two hundred 

 paces from her. Her firfl emotions, which were thofe of terror, occafioned her, to- 



ftrike 



