Even the intrepid Jesuit missionaries at first gave up the idea of descending into it, and the Indians told them that only the birds knew how deep it was.

The traveller as he stands at the edge of such gaps wonders whether it is possible to get across them.

They can in a few places be crossed, even with animals if these are lightly loaded, but it is a task hard upon flesh and blood.
It was in these barrancas, that I was to find the gentile (pagan) Indians I was so anxious to meet.

From where I stood looking at it the country seemed forgotten, lonely, untouched by human hand.

Shrubs and trees were clinging to the rocky brows of the barrancas, and vegetation, could be seen wherever there was sufficient earth on the mountain and the sides of the ravines; but, on the whole, the country looked rather barren and lifeless.
Still, it did not take us long to find traces of human beings.