by Daniel Defoe
dry wood; and, afterwards, their fire was sostrong and good, that they made the green wood burn as well as the dry.
Their companions on the floats were now come into the shoal water, inwhich, as I said, these men waded, but, as their floats did not drawabove a foot or eighteen inches water at most, they went on still; but,at length, being within about half a mile of the hillock where the twomen were, they found the water so shallow that their floats would notswim. Upon this, more of the men went overboard with poles in theirhands, sounding, as we call it, for a deeper water, and, with longpaddling about, they found the ground fall off a little in one place, bywhich they got their floats about a quarter of a mile farther; but thenthe water was shallow again, not above a foot of water: so, in a word,they were fain to be content, and, running fast aground, theyimmediately began, though dark, and themselves very much fatigued, tounload their floats and carry all on shore on their backs.
The first thing they took care to land, was their ammunition, theirgunpowder and arms, not forgetting the ammunition de bouche, as theFrench call it, I mean their victuals; and, with great joy, got to theircomrades. Then they fetched their proper materials for their tent, andset it up, and having refreshed themselves, they went all to sleep, asthey said, without so much as a sentinel placed for their guard; for, asthey saw no inhabitants, so they feared no enemies; and, it may besupposed, they were weary enough to make them want rest, even in theextremest manner.
In the morning they had time enough to reflect upon the madness of suchrash adventures. Their floats, indeed, remained as they had left them,and the water was ebbed away from them for more than two miles, that isto say, almost to the deep half mile mentioned above; but they heard asurprising noise and roaring of the water on the lake itself, the bodyof which was now above seven miles from them.
They could not imagine what this roaring should mean, for they felt nowind, nor could they perceive any clouds at a distance that looked as ifthey brought any squalls of wind with them, as they are often observedto do; but, when they came nearer the water, they found it had a kind ofa swell, and that there was certainly some more violent motion at thefarther distance; and, in a little while, looking behind them towardsthe shore where their comrades were, they found the water began tospread over the flat ground again; upon which, they hastened back, buthaving a good way to go, they were obliged to wade knee deep before theyreached to the hillock where their tent stood.
They had not been many hours on shore before they found the wind beganto rise, and the roaring, which before they heard at a distance, grewlouder and nearer, till at length the floats were lifted up, and drivenon shore by the wind, which increased to a storm, and the water swelledand grew rough; and, as they were upon the lee shore, the floats weresoon broken in pieces, and went some one way and some another.
In the evening it overcast and grew cloudy, and, about midnight, theyhad their share of a violent rain, which yet, they could see was moreviolent towards the mountains of the Andes, and towards the course ofthe river which they came down in the floats.
The consequence of this was, that the third day, the waters of the lakeswelled again to a frightful height; that is to say, it would have beenfrightful to them if they had been up in it, for they supposed it roseabout two fathoms perpendicularly, and the wind continuing fresh, thewater was all a white foam of froth; so that, had they been favouredwith even a good large boat under them, she would scarce have livedthere.
Their tent was a sufficient shelter from the rain, and, as they were ondry land, and too high to be reached by any inundation, they had noconcern upon them about their safety, but took this for sufficientnotice, not to come up the lake again in haste, unless they were betterprovided with boats to ride out a storm.
Our men began now to think they had taken their leave of the goldenlake, and yet they knew not how to think of leaving it so soon. Theywere now fourteen or fifteen leagues from the shore where they had foundso much gold, nor did they know the way to it by land; and as for goingby water, that they were unprovided for several ways; besides, thewaters kept up to a considerable height, and the winds blew fresh forsix or eight days, without intermission.
All these obstructions joined together, put them upon considering ofpursuing their march by land, in which, however, they resolved to coastthe lake as near as they could to the eastward, till, if possible, theyshould find that the waters had some outlet, that is to say, that thelake emptied itself by some river towards the sea, as they concluded itcertainly must.
They had not yet seen any inhabitants, or any sign of them, at least,not near them; they saw, or fancied they saw, some on the other side ofthe river, but, as none came within reach of them, it is doubtfulwhether they really saw them or not.
Before they decamped for a march, it was needful to get some provisions,if possible, and this made them the more desirous of finding out someconversible creatures, but it was in vain. They killed a wild cow and adeer, and this was all they could get for some time; and with this theyset forward, taking their course east, and rather northerly, in order tocome into the same latitude they set out in, at their first embarking onthe river.
After they had marched thus for about three days, keeping the lake onthe north side of them, and always in view, at length, on the third day,in the evening, coming to a little hill, which gave them the prospect ofthe country for some length north-east, they saw plainly a river issuingout of the lake, and running first east, then bending to the south; itwas also easy to perceive that this river, was at that time, muchbroader than its usual course, for that they could see a great manytrees, which probably grew on the banks of the river, standing as itwere, in the middle of the water, the banks being overflowed both waysvery considerably.
But, as they mounted the hill which they stood on, to greater height,they discovered farther north, at a distance of five or six miles,according to their account, a much larger river, which looked, comparedto the first, rather like a sea than a river, which likewise issued outof the lake, and ran east-by-south towards the sea; which river theysupposed to be in the same manner swelled with a land-water to aprodigious degree.
This prospect brought them to a more serious consultation as to themeasures they should take to proceed on their journey; and as they couldeasily see there was little or no use to be made of the rivers for theirtravelling, while they were thus above the ordinary banks, so that theycould not know the proper channels, and also that the currents wereexceeding swift, so they resolved to stock themselves with provisions,if possible, and continue their journey by land.
To this purpose they first made it their business to catch some moreguinacoes, or large sheep, which they knew would not only feed them, butalso carry their luggage, which was still heavy and very troublesome tothem, and yet absolutely necessary too. But all their endeavour was invain, for though they saw several, and found that the country was prettyfull of them, and some they killed, yet they could not take one alive byany means they could contrive.
Among other creatures they shot for food were a few wild cows andbulls, and especially on the north side of the river, where they foundgreat plenty.
But the most surprising thing to them that they had yet met with, wasstill to come. They had descended from the hill where they at firstdiscovered the smaller river, and where they had set up their tent,resolving to march on the lower grounds as near the river as they could,so as to be out of danger of the water, that they might find, ifpossible, some way over, to come at the great river, which they judgedto be the stream most proper for their business.
Here they found a rich pleasant country, level and fruitful, not so lowas to be exposed to the overflowing of the river, and not so high as tobe dry and barren; several little brooks and streams of water rising onthe side of the hill they came from, ran winding this way and that, asif to find out the river, and near the river were some woods of verylarge trees.
The men, not forgetting the main chance, fell to washing and searchingthe sand and gravel in these brooks
for gold; but the harvest of goldseemed to be over, for here they found none.
They had also an occasion to discover, that till the land-waters wereabated, there was no stirring for them, no not so much as to cross thefirst river; nor if they did, could they find in their hearts toventure, not knowing but the waters might still rise higher, and thatthe two rivers might swell into one, and so they should be swallowed up,or if not, they might be surrounded in some island, where they shouldperish for want of provisions; so they resolved to fetch their baggagefrom the hill as well as they could, and encamp in those pleasantplains, as near the river as they could, till the water should abate.
While they stayed here, they were so far from having hopes that thewaters would abate, that it rained violently for almost three days andnights together; and one of those rainy mornings, looking out at theirtent-door (for they could not stir abroad for the rain), they weresurprised, when looking towards the river, which was just below them,they saw a prodigious number of black creatures in the
