And this also they did willingly,
because our Captain, according to his custom, contented them for their
pains, with such things as they account greatly of; in such sort that
they promised, we should have there, of them at any time what we would.
The same day, we departed thence to Rio Grande [Magdalena], where we
entered about three of the clock in the afternoon. There are two entries
into this river, of which we entered the western most called _Boca
Chica_. The freshet [current] is so great, that we being half a league
from the mouth of it, filled fresh water for our beverage.
From three o'clock till dark at night, we rowed up the stream; but the
current was so strong downwards, that we got but two leagues, all that
time. We moored our pinnaces to a tree that night: for that presently,
with the closing of the evening, there fell a monstrous shower of
rain, with such strange and terrible claps of thunder, and flashes of
lightning, as made us not a little to marvel at, although our Captain
had been acquainted with such like in that country, and told us that
they continue seldom longer than three-quarters of an hour.
This storm was no sooner ceast, but it became very calm, and therewith
there came such an innumerable multitude of a kind of flies of that
country, called mosquitoes, like our gnats, which bit so spitefully,
that we could not rest all that night, nor find means to defend
ourselves from them, by reason of the heat of the country.
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