On the 30th January 1543, Captain Hernando de Ribera returned with the vessel and men entrusted to him for the exploration of the higher reaches of the river. But when he returned he found the governor and all his people sick with fever and shivering fits, so he could not make his report. By that time the water in the river had so swollen that all the land was inundated, and it was impossible to renew the exploration. The natives say that the floods continue for four months, and rise five or six fathoms, and that they then enter their canoes with their houses and provisions, as I have related above, and are not able to land. The natives of this country kill and eat one another. When the waters subside they set up their houses again on shore in the same places as before. The land is about this time infected with malaria, arising from the putrefaction of fish, which are left in large numbers on the dry land, and with the high temperature then prevailing it is impossible to endure the stench.