Six weeks elapsed before Villariño received answers to his letters, conveying to him the orders of Don Francisco Viedma, to proceed with the expedition; but in the interval the river fell so considerably that Villariño became alarmed (and not, as it appeared, without good cause,) lest he should be driven into the season when the waters were at their lowest, which would greatly add to his difficulties as he advanced:--nor was this the worst:--though Don Francisco had sent him an ample supply of provisions and other necessaries for the prosecution of the enterprise, he had at the same time peremptorily ordered him to send back all the peons with their horses, under the idea that this would be the surest means of obviating any future disputes or collision with the Indians. Villariño, without time to remonstrate, had no option but to obey this order, though he saw at once that it deprived him of his main-stay, and would necessarily very much retard his future progress. Under these circumstances, on the 20th of December, the boats once more got under sail to proceed up the river. Its winding course rendered the sails of little use, and it was hard work without the horses to make way against the force of the stream, the rapidity of which, as well as the difficulty of getting along, was much increased by innumerable small islands, which stud the river above Choleechel; indeed the men were nearly worn out, as might have been expected, with the toil of working at the towing-rope almost continually. In ten days they only advanced twenty-four leagues; they were not then sorry to fall in again with some of their fellow-creatures, albeit they were Indians, from whom they procured some horses, which relieved them from this part of their labour at least. They too were journeying westward, and much information was obtained from them respecting the upper parts of the river which greatly encouraged them to proceed, for there seemed little doubt from their accounts, that it was navigable to the foot of the Cordillera, from whence they might easily communicate with Valdivia. These Indians were returning to their ordinary haunts on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera, over against that city, and they readily offered their assistance to the Spaniards to show them the way over, when they arrived at their lands, which they described as being near the Huechum-lavquen, or lake of the boundary spoken of by Falkner. They said it was not more than three days' journey from thence to Valdivia, with the people of which it appeared they were in the habits of intercourse, and among whom they found ready purchasers for all the cattle they could carry off from the Pampas. Thus it appeared that the people of Buenos Ayres might thank their countrymen on the shores of the Pacific for a great part of the depredations they were continually complaining of from the hostile incursions of these savages.