382 AVOYAGETO Book VL 



ter failing eighty leagues, Orellana arrived at the 

 jund:ion of the two rivers, but met with nothing of 

 what he had been fent for ; being difappointed in the 

 provifions he fought, the trees not bearing any fruit, 

 or the Indians having already gathered it. His re- 

 turn to Pizarro feemed very difficult, if not imprac- 

 ticable, on account of the rapidity of the current; 

 befides, he could not think of returning, without 

 bringing with him that relief fo earneftly expe6led \ 

 fo that, after long debating the matter with himfelf, 

 he determined, without the privity of his compa- 

 nions, to fail with the current to the fea. But this 

 could not long rcmzm a fecret, the hoifting the fails 

 fufficiently demonftrating his intentions and fome 

 vehemently oppofing fuch a defertion, as they called it, 

 were near coming to blows. But at length Orellana, 

 by plaufible reafons and magnificent promifes, paci- 

 fied them : and the oppofition ceafing, he continued 

 his voyage, after fetting afhore Hernando Sanchez de 

 Vargas to perifh with hunger, as being the ring-leader 

 of the malecontents i and perfifling in his invedtives 

 againft Orellana's proje6b. 



Pizarro, furprized at having no account of Orel- 

 lana, marched by land to the place where he had or- 

 dered him, and near it met with Plernando Sanchez 

 de Vargas, who acquainted him with the whole af- 

 fair of the vefTel; at which Pizarro feeing him- 

 felf without reiburce, a confiderable part of his men 

 dead, the other fo exhaufted with fatigue and hun- 

 ger that they dropt down as they marched, and 

 thofe in the bed ttate reduced to mere Ikeletons ; he 

 determined to return to Qiiito, which, after fatigues 

 and hardfhips even greater than the former, he at 

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

 having only reconnoitred fome rivers, and the ad- 

 jacent country a fervice difproportionate to the lofs 

 of fo many men, and the miferies fuffered in this 

 eiiterprize. 



