a different language from any we had yet heard.[1] By signs, however, and with some words which I understood of that language, I prayed that two of them would guide ten Spaniards to the junction of that river with the other; and they answered that it was very near, so that they could go and return the same day. And God was pleased that, having travelled about two leagues through some very beautiful orchards of cacao and other fruit trees, they came upon a large river which they said emptied into the gulf where I had left the brigantines and barques and canoes, saying that the river's name was Apolochic.
Having been asked how long the journey would take in canoes to the gulf they replied five days, so I immediately sent two Spaniards with one of
Building
the Rafts
those guides who offered to take them, by short cuts known to him, to where the brigantines lay. I ordered that the brigantines and barques and canoes be brought to the mouth of that large river, and that, leaving the vessel behind, the two Spaniards should try, with one canoe and a boat, to ascend the river to its junction with the other. Having despatched these men, I ordered four rafts to be constructed of logs and large bamboos, capable of carrying forty bushels of dried maize and ten men, not counting many other things such as beans, and red peppers, and cacao, which each Spaniard took besides. It took eight full days to construct the rafts. When they were loaded, the Spaniard I had sent to the brigantines returned, and told me that, after ascending the river for six consecutive days, they had found it impossible to fetch the barque up, and
- ↑ The multitude and variety of American languages prove the high antiquity of the different peoples, for long centuries must have been required to evolve such diversity, especially where there was no written language. Humboldt enumerates fifteen different idioms, as absolutely distinct from one another as Persian from German, or French from Polish. Brasseur de Bourbourg estimates the total number, including dialects, at about two hundred.
