of the
veteran explorer, Almagro.

As the shiploads of gold reached the shores of Spain, more and more
adventurers flocked over to the New World. They swarmed into "Golden
Castile," about the city of Panama, and journeyed into the interior
of the yet new and unknown world. There are terrible stories of their
greed and cruelty to the native Indians. One story says that the Indians
caught some of these Spaniards, tied their hands and feet together,
threw them on the ground, and poured liquid gold into their mouths,
crying, "Eat, eat gold, Christian!"

Amongst other adventurers into South America at this time was Orellana,
who crossed the continent from ocean to ocean. He had accompanied one
of Pizarro's brothers into the land of the cinnamon forests, and with
him had crossed the Andes in search of another golden kingdom beyond
Quito. The expedition under Pizarro, consisting of some three hundred
and fifty Spaniards, half of whom were horsemen, and four thousand
Indians, set forward in the year 1540 to penetrate to the remote regions
in the Hinterland, on the far side of the Andes. Their sufferings were
intense. Violent thunderstorms and earthquakes terrified man and
beast; the earth opened and swallowed up five hundred houses; rain
fell in such torrents as to flood the land and cut off all communication
between the explorers and cultivated regions; while crossing the lofty
ridge of the Andes the cold was so intense that numbers of the party
were literally frozen to death. At length they reached the land of
the cinnamon trees, and, still pushing on, came to a river which must
be crossed to reach the land of gold. They had finished their provisions,
and had nothing to subsist on now save the wild fruit of the country.
After following the course of the river for some way, Pizarro decided
to build a little vessel to search for food along the river. All set
to work, Pizarro and Orellana, one of his chief captains, working as
hard as the men. They set up a forge for making nails, and burnt charcoal
with endless trouble owing to the heavy rains which prevented the
tinder from taking fire. They made nails from the shoes of the horses
which had been killed to feed the sick. For tar they used the resin
from the trees, for oakum they used blankets and old shirts. Then they
launched the little home-made boat, thinking their troubles would be
at an end. For some four hundred miles they followed the course of
the river, but the suppl