by Daniel Defoe
stout fellow, very well beloved by all the company, but there wasno remedy; so they came on in five canoes, and with a good stock ofprovisions, such as it was, viz., good fresh beef cured in the sun, andfifteen Peruvian sheep alive; for, when they got into the countrybetween the two rivers, they found it easy to catch those creatures, whobefore that would not come near them.
And now they came down the river apace, till they came to another goldenshore, where, finding some quantity of gold, they claimed theircaptain's promise, and, accordingly, they went all on shore to work, andpretty good success they had, picking up from among the sands aconsiderable quantity of gold, and, having stayed four of the five days,they found that they had cleared the place, which was not of a longextent, and so they cheerfully came on.
They proceeded now for eleven days together very willingly, but thenfound the channel of the river divided itself, and one went away to theleft, and the other to the right. They could not judge which was thebest to take; but not questioning but that they would meet again soon,they took the southernmost channel, as being most direct in theirlatitude; and thus they coursed for three or four days more, when theywere obliged to put into the mouth of a little river that fell into theother, and made a good harbour for their little fleet.
Here, I say, they were obliged to put in for want of provisions, forthey had eaten up all their guinacoes, and their two tame bulls too, thelast of which they soon repented, as will be shown presently.
After they had been a-hunting, and shot a couple of deer and a cow, witha kind of hare, as large as an English fox, they set forward again verymerry, and the more, because they had another little piece of a goldcoast, where, for two days, they had very good luck again; but judge howthey were surprised, and in what a consternation they were, when, comingfarther down the same river, they heard a terrible noise in the river,as of a mighty cataract, or waterfall, which increased as they cameforward, till it grew so loud that they could not hear themselvesspeak, much less hear one another.
As they approached, it was the more frightful; so at length, lest theyshould be hurried into it before they were aware, they went all onshore, doing all by signs and dumb postures, for it was impossible tohear any sound but that of the cataract.
Though the noise was so great, it was near six miles to the place fromwhence it came, which, when they perceived, some of them went back tobring on the boats, and so brought them as near the place as they durst,and ran them on shore into a little hollow part of the bank, just largeenough to hold them. When they had thus secured the boats, they went toview the waterfall; but how were they astonished, when they found thatthere were no less than five waterfalls, at the distance of about twomiles from each other, some more, some less, and that the water fellfrom a prodigious height; so that it was impossible for any boat tolaunch down the cataract without being dashed in pieces.
The men now saw there was no remedy but that they must lose the benefitof their five canoes, which had been so comfortable to them, and bywhich they had come above four hundred miles in a little time, withsafety and pleasure.
These cataracts made the river perfectly useless to them for abovetwenty miles, and it was impossible to drag their canoes that lengthover land; so, in short, they unloaded them, and, for their ownsatisfaction, they turned one, the biggest of them, adrift, and let itgo to the first cataract, placing themselves so beyond that they mightsee it come down, which they did, and had the vexation of seeing itdashed all to pieces on the rocks below.
As there was no remedy, they plainly saw they must leave their boatsbehind them. And now, as I have said, they had time to repent killingtheir two tamed bulls, who would have done them good service; but it wastoo late to look back upon what was done and over so many days before.They had now no means left them, if they would go forward, but to taketheir baggage upon their shoulders and travel on foot. The only helpthey had was, that they had got five guinacoes left, which, though theywere hungry, and would fain have eaten, yet, as they had carried atleast five hundred weight of their luggage, they chose to fast and walkrather than feast and work; so they went on as well as they could tillthey got past these falls, which, though not above twenty miles, costthem five days' labour; at the end of which, they encamped again torefresh themselves, and consider of what was next to be done. They werethus long upon this short journey for many reasons.
1. Because they were obliged to employ the best part of two days inhunting for their food, in which time, five of them swimming over theriver to shoot at some black cattle, extremely fatigued themselves inpursuing them, but did, however, shoot five cows and bulls; but then itwas at such a distance, that it was more pains to drag the flesh alongto the river's side than it was worth, only that they were indeedhunger-starved, and must have it.
2. They found still some little quantity of gold in the water, that isto say, below the falls, where the water, by falling with great force,had made a pit or hole of a vast depth, and had thrown up a shoal again,at perhaps a little distance, where they took up some gold whenever thewater was low enough to come at it.
3. The weight of their baggage made them travel heavy, and seldom abovefive or six miles a day.
Being now come to the open river, they thought of building more floats;but they were discouraged from this consideration by not knowing but ina few days' march there might be more waterfalls, and then all theirlabour would be lost; so they took up their tent and began to travelagain.
But here, as they kept the river close on board, as the seamen call it,they were at a full stop, by the coming in of another river from thesouth-west, which, when it joined the river they were along by, wasabove a quarter of a mile broad, and how to get over it they knew not.
They sent two men up the additional river some length, and they broughtword that it was indeed narrower by much, but nowhere fordable, but deepand rapid.
At the same time they sent two more nimble fellows down the coast of thegreat river, to see if there were any more waterfalls, who brought themword that there were none for upwards of sixty miles.
While they lay here, at the point of the influx, expecting the return oftheir scouts, they used what diligence they could in getting provisions;and among the rest, they killed three cows and a bull on the other sideof the largest river; but not knowing how to bring them over, they atlast concluded to go, as many as could swim, which was the better halfof them, and sit down by it, and roast and broil upon the spot as muchas they could eat, and then bring with them, as much as they could fortheir companions.
For this purpose they got boughs of trees, and bound them together, thenwrapped the meat in the hides, and laid it on the wood, and made anumber of little contrivances to convey it, so that no part of the meatwas lost. What they got on their own side of the river they made bettershift with.
On the return of their scouts they found there was no remedy but tobuild some new vessels, of one kind or other, to take in their baggageand provision, which they made after the manner of their first floats;for they found no trees large enough to make canoes; when, therefore,they had made one great float, they resolved to make two small boats,like yawls or skiffs, with which they might tow their large float orbarge; and as this they might do with small timbers, so they found meansto line them within and without with the bulls' hides, and that sodexterously joined, and lapped and rolled one over another, that nowater came through, or but very little.
With these two boats they ferried over the small rivers with ease, eachboat carrying six men, besides two to row; and when they were over thesmall rivers, the two boats served to tow their great punt or bargeclose by the shore.
The greatest difficulty was for tow-lines to draw the boats by, andthose they supplied by twisting a strong tough kind of flag or rush,which they found in the river, of which, with much application andlabour, they made a kind of rope-yarn, and then twisting it again, madeit very strong.
This was the voiture with which they conveyed themselves quite down tothe sea, and one of these boats it was that we
spied, as above, comingto us in the bay.
They had yet above four hundred and fifty miles to the sea, nor couldthey at any time tell or guess how far off it might be. They went onmore or less every day, but it was but slowly, and not without greatlabour, both of rowing and towing. Their provisions also cost them muchpains, for they were obliged first to hunt and kill it, and then bringit to the camp, which, however, was always close to the river's side.
After they had travelled thus some time, following the course of theriver, they came to a place, where, on a sudden, they could see nofarther bank of the river, but it looked all water, like the sea. Thisthey could not account for; so, the next day, they rowed towards it withone of their little boats, when they were surprised to find that it wasthe northern branch of the river, which they had seen go off before theycame at the waterfalls, which river being now increased with many othergreat waters, was now so great, that the mouth of it might be said to befour or five miles over, and rather received the river
