As they were in such great straits that there seemed no remedy either by advancing or by going back, Gonzalo Pizarro resolved to send canoes with other persons, to see if any signs of natives or homesteads could be found, where they could get food; for if they delayed much longer they must all inevitably perish. He therefore ordered the captain Gonzalo Díaz de Pineda to go out and make search with some others. They embarked in the canoes and went down stream until they came to another river larger and mightier than the one they had been navigating, the two becoming one. Here they saw cuts made by wood knives and swords, showing that Orellana and his companions had been there. As they were so ravening and wishful to reach some place where there was food, they considered, on seeing such a large river, that it would be well to go up it and see what could be found. After having gone up it for ten leagues, God our Lord was pleased that they should find many very thick patches of _yuca_,[42] so large that the stems that came from their roots looked like a small forest. This _yuca_ plantation was due to certain Indians who had previously lived for some years in that locality. Their neighbours, in a war they waged upon them, forced them to retire farther inland into the mountains. Hence these _yucas_ they had planted continued to grow and remain there as we have described, and afforded no small relief to the exhausted Spaniards. Those who came in the canoes knew the _yucas_ quite well. So they went down on their knees and gave thanks to God our Lord for His great mercy. Then they began to pull them up and load the two canoes, returning with them full to where Gonzalo Pizarro was waiting, where the Spaniards had already given up all hope of escaping with their lives. When they saw the canoes and learnt what they brought, they all wept for joy, saying, "Blessed be the Lord our God who has thus remembered us," while kneeling on the ground, and turning their eyes heavenward; thus giving Him thanks for a mercy which they held to be a very great one.