place they constructed a bridge by which they passed to the other side, and entered into a country called Guema, which was so poor, that they could only get fruit and herbs to subsist upon.  Travelling onwards from that place, they came to a district where the people had some degree of civilization, and wore cotton clothing of their own manufacture, and used canoes.  They here built a brigantine, in which, and in some canoes, procured or taken from the natives, they embarked their sick, with their treasure, provisions, and spare apparel, under the charge of Francis de Orellana; while Gonsalvo Pizarro marched by land with the rest of the people along the river, going every night into the boats.  In this manner they proceeded for about 200 leagues; when one night, on coming to the river side, in hopes of joining the boats as usual, Pizarro could not see or hear of them.  He and his people were reduced, by this unfortunate incident, to a state of almost utter despair:  In a strange, poor, and barren country, without provisions, clothing, or any other convenience, and at a vast distance from their friends, with a prodigious extent of difficult and dangerous road interposed between them and Quito, they were reduced to the necessity of eating their horses, and even their dogs.  Yet holding a good heart, they proceeded onwards in their journey for eighteen months, penetrating, as is said, almost 500 leagues, without ever seeing the sun or any thing else to comfort them.  At length, of the 200 men who had set out from Quito, only ten returned thither; and these so weak, ragged, and disfigured, that they could not be recognized.  Orellana went 5 or 600 leagues down the river, passing through various countries and nations on both sides, among whom he affirmed that some were Amazons[94].  From the mouth of that river, Orellana went home to Spain, and excused himself for having deserted Pizarro, and those who marched by land, by alleging, that he had been forced down the river by the strength of the current, which he was utterly unable to stem.  By some, this river is named after Orellana, who first navigated its waters; and others call it the river of the Amazons, on account of a female nation of warriors, who are said to inhabit its banks[95].

In the year 1541, Don Stephen de Gama, the Portuguese governor of India, went with a squadron into the Red Sea, by the strait of Mecca, or of Babelmandel, and came to anchor off the island of Macua, or Massoua; from whence he sailed along the coast of Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, to the island of Suachem, in lat. 20 deg.  N. and to the harbour of Cossier, in 27 deg..  From thence, he crossed over to the Arabian shore, and the city of Toro, and sailed from that place to Suez, at the farther end of the Red Sea, and returned from thence to India, having extended the Portuguese knowledge of that sea farther than had ever been done before.  On the way between Cossier and Toro, Gama is said to have found an island of brimstone, which had been dispeopled by Mahomet, wherein many crabs are bred, which increase nature, on which account, they are much sought after by the unchaste.