s of
cure, by tents, escharotics, cautery, and heating inflammatory
applications; which in modern times, abandoned by surgeons, have been
adopted by farriers.--E.]

After leaving the territories of the cow-herds, the Spaniards marched
for twenty days through the lands of other tribes. Being of opinion that
they had declined too much from, the direction of Guachacoya, to which
place they now proposed returning, the Spaniards now directed their
course eastwards, still inclining somewhat towards the _north_, so that
in this way they crossed the direction they had formerly gone in their
march from Auche to the country of the cow-herds, yet without perceiving
it. When at length they reached the great river, it was the middle of
September, having travelled three months from leaving Guachacoya; and
though they had fought no pitched battle during all that time, they
were never free from alarm night or day, so that they had lost forty
soldiers during this last useless and circuitous march. The Indians on
every opportunity shot all who happened to stray from the main body, and
would often crawl on all fours at night into their quarters, shoot their
arrows, and make their escape, unseen by the centinels. To add to their
distresses, the winter now began to set in, with much rain, snow and
excessive cold weather. On coming to where they proposed quartering for
the night, though wet, cold, weary and hungry, they were obliged to send
parties in advance to secure them, generally, by force, and after all
were mostly under the necessity of procuring provisions by means of
their swords. Besides all this, they were often forced to construct
rafts or floats on which to pass rivers, which sometimes occupied them
five or six days. The horsemen were frequently obliged to pass the night
on horseback, and the infantry to stand up to their knees in mire and
water, with hardly any clothes to cover them, and such as they had
always wet. Owing to these accumulated hardships, many of the Spaniards
and their Indian attendants fell sick, and the distemper proceeded to
the horses, so that sometimes four or five men and horses died in a day,
and sometimes seven, whom they scarcely had leisure to bury for haste in
pursuing their march.

In this miserable condition they came to the great river about the
latter end of November[190]. In their march on the west side of the
great river, from leaving the territory of Guachacoya to their arrival
at their new w