They gave us food, lent us canoes, served us as pilots and guides, and thought themselves well paid with a piece of scarlet cloth or a handful of glass beads.
My men turned out quite as ill as I had been led to expect.

Several deserted at the outset, two or three died of fever, two were eaten by alligators, and when we first caught sight of the Andes, Gahra was my sole companion.
We were in a pitiful plight.

I was weak from the effects of a fever, Gahra lame from the effects of an accident.

My money was nearly all gone, my baggage had been lost by the upsetting of a canoe, and our worldly goods consisted of two sorry mules, our arms, the ragged clothes on our backs, and a few pieces of silver.

How we were to cross the Andes, and what we should do when we reached Peru was by no means clear.