There's big mischief afoot and we've got to keep on following, waiting our chance, which, I think, will come." They did not start until noon the next day, in order to give the Spaniards a longer lead, and they rounded the neck of land very slowly lest they run into a trap.

But when the river lay straight before them again they beheld nothing.

They passed the point where the Spaniards had camped and saw the dead coals of their fires, but they did not stop, continuing instead their steady progress down stream.
It now grew hot upon the water.

They had come many hundreds of miles since the start, and they were in a warmer climate.

The character of the vegetation was changing.