5S ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE . 



exploring the country. This was manned with fifty soldiers, 

 under the command of Francis Orellana, the officer next in 

 rank to Pizarro. 



The stream carried them down so quickly that they were 

 soon far ahead of their countrymen, who followed slowly and 

 with difficulty by land. At first Orellana may have had no in- 

 tention to betray the trust bestowed upon him by his com- 

 mander; but on reaching the Maranon, the aspect of the 

 stream rolling majestically to the east proved a temptation too 

 strong for his ambition ; and, forgetting his duty to his fellow 

 soldiers, he resolved to follow the course of the river, which 

 seemed to beckon him onwards to riches and renown. But one 

 among his followers, Sanchez de Vargas, whose name well 

 deserves a record, had the courage to remonstrate against this 

 breach of faith, for which he was landed as a criminal, without 

 food or help of any kind. After a dangerous and romantic 

 navigation of seven months, whose real adventures he after- 

 wards embellished with fabulous tales of El Dorados and war- 

 like Amazons, Orellana at length reached the mouth of the 

 stream. Drifted by the current, he thence safely steered for 

 the Spanish settlement in the island of Cubagua, and soon 

 after embarked for Spain. The magnificence of his discovery 

 threw a veil over his guilt ; and, having been appointed 

 governor of the territory whose grandeur he had been the 

 first to reveal, he once more crossed the ocean. But he was 

 not destined to reach the scene where his ambition dreamt of 

 exploits worthy to eclipse the fame of Cortez or Pizarro ; a 

 mortal disease befel him on the passage, and in the sea he 

 found a nameless grave. 



But what had meanwhile become of the leader whom he 

 had so basely abandoned in the wilderness ? The consternation 

 of Pizarro on not finding the bark at the confluence of the 

 Napo and the Maranon, where he had ordered Orellana to wait 

 for him, may well be imagined. But, imputing his absence to 

 some unknown accident, he advanced above fifty leagues along 

 the banks of the river, expecting every moment to see the 

 bark appear with abundant provisions and joyful tidings. At 

 length he met with the faithful Vargas, and now no doubt remained 

 about the treachery of his lieutenant and his own desperate 



I 



