How the governor sent to discover the house which was further on.
THE following day the governor sent an interpreter with two Spaniards and two Indians to the house of which mention has been made, to ascertain the road and the time it would take to reach the first inhabited parts. He ordered that they should report as promptly as possible to him any information they were able to obtain, in order that he might take measures accordingly. The day after the departure of these scouts he ordered his people to follow by short marches the route they had taken. When they had thus been marching three days an Indian arrived, bearing a letter for the governor from the interpreter, saying that he had arrived at the house of the Indians, and had spoken with the man who knew the road into the interior. This man had told him that the first inhabited place was the summit of a rocky hill called Tapuaguazú, that on reaching it a view might be obtained of a wide extent of inhabited country, and that it might be sixteen days’ journey from his place to Tapuaguazú, and that the road thither was very difficult because of the trees, thickets, and high grass, besides other inconveniences. The interpreter added that since leaving the governor they had found the country thickly forested and so difficult that they had undergone great fatigues. For the greater part of the way they had crawled on hands and feet, and, according to the Indian relative, the road farther on was even worse. They intended bringing this Indian back with them that the governor might obtain information direct from him. Having read this letter, the governor followed the path by which the messenger had come, but found it so thickly wooded and beset with difficulties that it took a whole day to clear a passage the length of a slinger’s shot. Heavy rains having now set in, the governor ordered his people to retire to the shelter huts they had left in the morning, for fear of their suffering from wet and damping their ammunition.
[CHAPTER THE SIXTY-FOURTH.]
How the interpreter returned from the Indian habitation.
THE interpreter returned at three o’clock of the afternoon of the following day, bringing with him the Indian who said he knew the road. The governor received him most kindly and gave him presents, with which he was well pleased. He then ordered the interpreter to ask him in his name to tell him all the truth about the road leading into the interior. This Indian then said that he had not been that way for a long time, though he knew it, and had gone by it several times to Tapuaguazú. From the summit of that rocky hill, he affirmed, one might see the smoke of all the villages. He used to go to Tapuaguazú to fetch arrows that are to be had there, but for many days he had discontinued his visits to that place, because on his way thither he observed the smoke of Indian fires, by which he became aware that new settlements were being formed in that deserted region.
Fearing for his life, he had not dared to go further along the path, which is so obstructed that it can only be followed with much labour. He thought that by cutting down trees and clearing a road they might reach Tapuaguazú in sixteen days. He was asked if he would like to accompany the Christians and show them the road; he answered that he would willingly go, though he greatly feared the natives. Having heard the information given by this Indian, and understood the difficulties of the road, the governor convened a meeting of the officers, clergy, and captains to consult with them what should be done to discover the country. Having discussed the matter, they said that most of the Spaniards were in want of provisions and had eaten nothing for three days, and they dared not ask for it because of the disorder and mismanagement that prevailed in its distribution. The first guide we had taken had assured us that on the fifth day we should find provisions and reach an inhabited country with plenty of commodities. Having put faith in these promises, both Christians and Indians had improvidently consumed all they brought with them, though every man had been supplied with two arrobas of flour. The governor had, in their opinion, to consider that there were barely six days’ provisions left, and at the end of that time there would be nothing for the people to eat. Under these circumstances they thought it would be very dangerous to advance further without means of subsistence, the more so because the Indians are not as a rule precise in their indications, and it might happen that, instead of sixteen days estimated by the guide, the time might be greater, and that they might all die of starvation, as had happened before to exploring expeditions in this country. They were, therefore, of opinion that the security and lives of the Christians and Indians depended upon their return to the port of Los Reyes, where they had left their vessels. Once there, it would be easy to take fresh supplies and recommence the discovery. Such was their advice, and, they added, if necessary, they would require the governor in the name of His Majesty to conform with it.