Whilst resting with these friendly people, the explorer had the good fortune to fall in with a native on his way from _Asuncion_ to _Brazil_, and who undertook to retrace his steps and guide him to his seat of government. Leaving a region where a certain degree of civilisation existed--where maize and mandioc were cultivated, and where men lived in houses and reared fowls and ducks--the Spanish leader had once more to trust himself and his men to the toils and risks of a march through the primeval forest, through which, after having surmounted innumerable difficulties, they at length approached their destination. In the course of one day they had to construct as many as eighteen bridges for the passage of their horses. This march had mainly lain along the course of the river _Yguazû_, a tributary of the _Paraná_, which takes its rise near the Atlantic Ocean. In order to avoid a tribe which was reported to be hostile, Cabeza de Vaca embarked with part of his force on canoes, intending to proceed thus to the _Paraná_, whilst the rest of his men should march along the river’s bank to the point of junction of the two streams. But there was an obstacle in his way which prevented the execution of this scheme. The _Yguazû_, which stream is about one mile in breadth, while it flows through the Brazilian forest, suddenly becomes contracted, at a short distance above its junction with the _Paraná_, to the breadth of rather less than a thousand yards. It then breaks into several channels and rushes over a series of descents, the highest of which is one hundred and seventy-two feet. Of this cataract--which, though little visited, is perhaps the grandest in South America--the vicinity is made known by the roar of waters and by the rising of a mist which overspreads the falls to a height of more than one hundred feet.
The Indians through whose settlements Cabeza had passed, though they had appeared friendly, had permitted him to embark on the _Yguazû_ above the falls, without giving him warning of the danger that lay before him. The canoes that had been lent to the explorer were hurled with fearful rapidity along the face of the stream, and the rate of their passage became increased as they approached the scene of danger; but the distant sound of the falling waters warned Cabeza to steer for the bank, along which, for the distance of half a league, his followers carried their canoes, re-embarking below the falls, and then proceeding, without interruption, to the point of junction of the _Yguazû_ with the _Paraná_.