After they had travelled thus some time, following the course of the river, they came to a place, where, on a sudden, they could see no farther bank of the river, but it looked all water, like the sea. This they could not account for; so, the next day, they rowed towards it with one of their little boats, when they were surprised to find that it was the northern branch of the river, which they had seen go off before they came at the waterfalls, which river being now increased with many other great waters, was now so great, that the mouth of it might be said to be four or five miles over, and rather received the river they were on, than ran into that; but, after this, it contracted itself again, though still it was to be supposed near a mile and a half over.
They were far from being pleased at this conjunction of the waters, because the great water being thus joined, they found the stream or current more violent, and the water, upon the least stirring of the wind, more turbulent than it was before, and as their great float drew but little water, and swam flat upon the surface, she was ready to founder upon every occasion. This obliged them almost every night to seek for some little cove or creek to run her into, as into a harbour, to preserve her; for, when the wind blew from shore, they had enough to do to keep her from driving off from the river, and, when there was but little wind, yet it made a rippling or chopping of the waves, that they had much difficulty to keep them from filling her.
All the country on the side of this river was a little higher ground than ordinary, which was its security from land-floods, and their security too; for sometimes the river was seen to rise, and that so much as to overflow a great extent of land on the other side. Hence, perhaps, the other side might be esteemed the most fruitful, and perhaps might be the better land, if it had but half the art and industry of an European nation to assist the natural fertility of the soil, by keeping the water in its bounds, banking and fencing the meadows from the inundations and freshes, which were frequently sent down from the Andes and from the country adjoining.
But, as it now was, those lower lands lay great part of the year under water; whether it was the better or worse for the soil, that no judgment can be made of, till some people come to settle there to whom it may be worth while to make experiments of that kind.
This part of the country they were now in resembled, as they hinted, the county of Dorsetshire and the downs about Salisbury, only not lying so high from the surface of the water, and the soil being a good fruitful dark mould, not a chalky solid rock, as in the country about Salisbury, and some other parts.
Here they found a greater quantity of deer than they had seen in all their journey, which they often had the good luck to kill for their supply of food, the creatures not being so shy and wild as they had found farther within the country.
It may be noted here, and it is very observable, that in all this journey I could not learn that they saw either wolf or fox, bear or lion, or, indeed, any other ravenous creature, which they had the least reason to be shy or afraid of, or which, indeed, were frightful to the deer; and this, perhaps, may be the reason why the number of the latter animals is so great, which, as I have said, is greater there than at other places.
After they had feasted themselves here for some days, they resolved to begin their new kind of navigation, and to see what they could make of it; but they went very heavily along, and every now and then, as I have said, the water was too rough for them, and they were fain to put into harbour, and sometimes lie there two or three days. However, they plyed their time as well as they could, and sometimes the current setting over to their side, and running strong by the shore, they would go at a great rate, insomuch that one time they said they went about thirty miles in a day, having, besides the current, a little gale of wind right astern.
They reckoned that they went near two hundred miles in this manner, for they made the best of it; and at the end of these two hundred miles, it was, by their reckoning, that our five men who travelled into the country so far, found them, when they saw the hat swimming down the stream; which hat, it seems, one of them let fall overboard in the night.
They had, I say, travelled thus far with great difficulty, the river being so large; but, as they observed it growing larger and larger the farther they went, so, they said, they did not doubt, but that, in a little more, they should come to the sea.