much weakened, that Pizarro was obliged to despatch Orellana with
fifty men, in a vessel they had built, to the Napo, in search of
provisions. It can be imagined by those acquainted with the
Amazons country how fruitless this errand would be in the
wilderness of forest where Orellana and his followers found
themselves when they reached the Napo, and how strong their
disinclination would be to return against the currents and rapids
which they had descended. The idea then seized them to commit
themselves to the chances of the stream, although ignorant
whither it would lead. So onward they went. From the Napo they
emerged into the main Amazons, and, after many and various
adventures with the Indians on its banks, reached the Atlantic--
eight months from the date of their entering the great river. [It
was during this voyage that the nation of female warriors was
said to have been met with; a report which gave rise to the
Portuguese name of the river, Amazonas. It is now pretty well
known that this is a mere fable, originating in the love of the
marvellous which distinguished the early Spanish adventurers, and
impaired the credibility of their narratives.]

Another remarkable voyage was accomplished, in a similar manner,
by a Spaniard named Lopez d'Aguirre, 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 extract 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: