these inhumanities. Having agreed on the measures necessary to be taken,
they first furnished themselves with Dutch knives sharp at the point,
which, being the common knives used in the ship, they found no difficulty
in procuring. Besides this they employed their leisure in secretly
cutting out thongs from raw hides, of which there were great numbers on
board, and in fixing to each end of these thongs the double-headed shot
of the small quarter-deck guns; this, when swung round their heads
according to the practice of their country was a most mischievous weapon*
in the use of which the Indians about Buenos Ayres are trained from their
infancy, and consequently are extremely expert.

SPANISH CRUELTY.

These particulars being in good forwardness, the execution of their
scheme was perhaps precipitated by a particular outrage committed on
Orellana himself; for one of the officers, who was a very brutal fellow,
ordered Orellana aloft, which being what he was incapable of performing,
the officer, under pretence of his disobedience, beat him with such
violence that he left him bleeding on the deck and stupefied for some
time with his bruises and wounds. This usage undoubtedly heightened his
thirst for revenge, and made him eager and impatient till the means of
executing it were in his power, so that within a day or two after this
incident he and his followers opened their desperate resolves in the
ensuing manner.

(*Note. It is called a bola.)

A DARING ADVENTURE.

It was about nine in the evening, when many of the principal officers