Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 583 



This was the firft expedition of any confequence, 

 to make difcovery of the river Maranon : and if the 

 fuccefs of Pizarro was not equal to his force and zeal, 

 he was at lead the inftrument of its being entirely ac- 

 compiiQied by another and to his refolution in 

 preffing forward through difficulties and dangers, and 

 by his expedient of building the armed vefTel, mud, 

 in fonie meafure, be attributed the happy event of 

 Orellana's voyage, who, with a conftancy which 

 fhewed him worthy of his general's favour, recon- 

 noitred the famous river of the Amazons through 

 its whole extent, the adjacent country, its innumera- 

 ble iflands, and the multitude and difference of na- 

 tions inhabiting its banks. But this remarkable ex- 

 pedition deferves a pjore particular detail. 



Orellana began to fail down the river in the year 

 1 54 1 ; and in his progrefs through the feveral nations 

 along its banks, entered into a friendly conference 

 with many, having prevailed upon them to acknow- 

 ledge the fovereignty of the kings of Spain formally, 

 and with the confent of the caciques took poffeffion 

 of it. Others, not fo docile, endeavoured to oppofe, 

 with a large fleet of canoes, his farther navigation : 

 and with thefe he had feveral Ihsirp encounters. In 

 one Indian nation bravery was fo general, that the wo- 

 men fought with no Icfs intrepidity than the men ; 

 and by their dexterity fhewed, that they were trained 

 up to the exercile of arms. This occafioned Orel- 

 lana to call them Amazons which name alfo paffed 

 to the river. The fcene of this adion, according to 

 Orellana's own account, and the defcription of the 

 place, is thought to have been at fome diftance below 

 the jund:ion of the Negro and Maranon. Thus he 

 continued his voyage till the 26th of Auguft, in the 

 fame year when, having paffed a prodigious number 

 of iflands, he faw himfelf in the ocean. He now 

 proceeded to the Ifle of Cubagua, or, according to 

 others, to that of La Trinidad, with a defign of go- 

 ing 



