But in this he was baffled by a succession of
heavy tempests, accompanied with such tremendous peals of thunder and
floods of rain as are found only in the terrible storms of the tropics. The
sea was lashed into fury, and, swelling into mountain billows, threatened
every moment to overwhelm the crazy little bark, which opened at every
seam. For ten days the unfortunate voyagers were tossed about by the
pitiless elements, and it was only by incessant exertions--the exertions of
despair--that they preserved the ship from foundering. To add to their
calamities, their provisions began to fail, and they were short of water, of
which they had been furnished only with a small number of casks; for
Almagro had counted on their recruiting their scanty supplies, from time
to time, from the shore. Their meat was wholly consumed, and they
were reduced to the wretched allowance of two ears of Indian corn a day
for each man.
Thus harassed by hunger and the elements, the battered voyagers were
too happy to retrace their course and regain the port where they had last
taken in supplies of wood and water. Yet nothing could be more
unpromising than the aspect of the country. It had the same character of
low, swampy soil, that distinguished the former landing-place; while
thick-matted forests, of a depth which the eye could not penetrate,
stretched along the coast to an interminable length.
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