Their provisions had
been long since spoiled by the weather, and their drove of swine had
vanished, such of the animals as were not consumed having strayed into the
woods and hills. They had brought with them nearly a thousand dogs, many
of them of the ferocious bloodhound breed, and these they were now glad
enough to kill and eat. When these were gone no food was to be had but
such herbs and edible roots and small animals as the forest afforded.
At length the disconsolate wanderers emerged on the banks of a broad
river, the Napo, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon, issuing from
the northern Andes to seek a home in the bosom of that mighty stream.
Gladdened by the sight, they followed its banks downward, hoping in this
way to find an easier route. Thickets still beset their way, through which
it needed all their strength to open a passage, and after going a
considerable distance a loud and increasing noise met their ears. For
miles they followed it as it gradually rose into a roar, and at length
they reached a place where the stream rushed furiously down steep rapids,
and at the end poured in a vast volume of foam down a magnificent
cataract, twelve hundred feet in depth.
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