On the last day of the year 1541 this voyage was commenced, and to such straits were the explorers reduced ere it ended, that they had recourse to boiling their leathern girdles and their shoes, to eat with the herbs upon which they had to subsist. At length the sound of a drum was heard, and four canoes were seen, when Orellana, landing his men, attacked the Indians with the impetuosity of wolves. The plunder of their property supplied the explorers for the present with food, and a further stock was obtained for the voyage. By means of an Indian language some verbal intercourse took place between Orellana and his hosts, and from this arose the name by which the river they were descending was destined to be ever afterwards known. Further down the stream--so the Indians said--there was a country inhabited by a tribe of female warriors. The Spaniards made themselves another boat and descended the river, passing by the mouths of numerous affluents and through the territories of many _caciques_. They landed at several places, and formally took possession of them for their monarch. They had at length to fight a battle, in which, it was affirmed, ten or twelve females took part. These women, of whom, according to the priest of the explorers, the Spaniards slew seven or eight, were tall and well formed; they were of fair complexion; they wore but a girdle; and they fought with desperation. [Sidenote: 1542.] This voyage extended until the 26th of August 1542, when the triumphant Spaniards emerged at the mouth of the river, and courageously committed their frail barques to the currents and waves of the sea. Steering northwards, they desired to reach the island of _Cubagua_. The newly discovered river was at first named after _Orellana_, but soon afterwards took its enduring name from the real or imaginary female warriors,--“The _Amazons_.” [Sidenote: 1542.]