"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,
[This account disagrees with that of Acunna, the historiographer
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.] 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 eighteenth
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
Martius in the third volume of Spix and Martius' Travels. These
most accomplished travellers were eleven months in the country--
namely, from July, 1819, to June, 1820--and ascended the river to
the frontiers of the Brazilian territory. The accounts they have
given of the geography, ethnology, 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