THE
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displayed admirable management under these delays and difficul足 ties.
Their supply of food being scanty, he divided his people,
Spaniards, Negroes, and Indians, into three bands ; one was to cut and saw the wood, another to bring the rigging and iron-work from Acla, which was twenty-two leagues distant ; and the third to forage the neighboring country for provisions. Scarcely was the timber felled and shaped for use when the rains set in, and the river swelled and overflowed its banks so suddenly, that the workmen barely escaped with their lives, by clambering into trees ; while the wood on which they had been working was either buried in sand or slime, or swept away by the raging torrent.
Famine was soon added to their other distresses.
The foraging party did not return with food ; and the swelling of the river cut them off from that part of the country whence they obtained their supplies.
They were reduced, therefore, to such
scarcity, as to be fain to assuage their hunger with roots gathered in the forests. In this extremity the Indians bethought themselves of one of their rude and simple expedients.
Plunging into the river they
fastened a number of logs together with withes, and connected them with the opposite bank, so as to make a floating bridge. On this a party of the Spaniards crossed with great difficulty and peril, from the violence of the current, and the flexibility of the bridge, which often sank beneath them until the water rose above their girdles.
On being safely landed they foraged the neighbor足
hood, and procured a supply of provisions sufficient for the present emergency. When the river subsided the workmen again resumed their labors ; a number of recruits arrived from Acla, bringing various supplies, and the business of the enterprise was pressed with re-