VOYAGE OF LOPEZ D'AGUIRRE 145 



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

 Amazons flowing from the south, and therefore from an 

 opposite direction to that of the Napo. An account of 

 this journey was sent by D'Aguirre, in a letter to the 

 King of Spain, from which Humboldt has given an ex- 

 tract in his narrative. As it is a good specimen of the 

 quaintness of style and looseness of statement exhibited 

 by these early narrators of adventures in South America, 

 I will give a translation of it. * We constructed rafts, 

 and, leaving behind our horses and baggage, sailed down 

 the river (the Ucayali) with great risk, until we found 

 ourselves in a gulf of fresh water. In this river Maranon 

 we continued more than ten months and a half, down 

 to its mouth, where it falls into the sea. We made one 

 hundred days' journey, and travelled 1500 leagues. It is 

 a great and fearful stream, has 80 leagues of fresh water 

 at its mouth, vast shoals, and 800 leagues of wilderness 

 without any kind of inhabitants^, as your Majesty will 

 see from the true and correct narrative of the journey 

 which we have made. It has more than 6000 islands. 

 God knows how we came out of this fearful sea.' Many 

 expeditions were undertaken in the course of the eigh- 

 teenth century ; in fact, the crossing of the continent 

 from the Pacific to the Atlantic, by way of the Amazons, 

 seems to have become by this time a common occurrence. 

 The only voyage, however, which yielded much scientific 

 information to the European public was that of the 

 French astronomer. La Condamine, in 1743-4. The most 

 complete account yet published of the river is that given 

 by Von Martins in the third volume of Spix and Martins' 

 Travels. These most accomplished travellers were eleven 

 months in the country — namely, from July, 18 19, to June, 

 1820, and ascended the river to the frontiers of the Brazi- 

 lian territory. Their accounts of the geography, ethno- 

 logy, botany, history, and statistics of the Amazons 

 region are the most complete that have ever been given 

 to the world. Their narrative was not published until 

 1 83 1, and was unfortunately inaccessible to me during 

 the time I travelled in the same country. 



^ This account disagrees with that of Acunna, the historio- 

 grapher of Texeira's expedition, who accompanied him, in 

 1639, on his return voyage from Quito. Acunna speaks of 

 a very numerous population on the banks of the Amazons. 



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