River of Darkness

From the acclaimed author of _Conquistador_ comes this thrilling account of

one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. With cinematic immediacy

and meticulous attention to historical detail, here is the true story of a

legendary sixteenth-century explorer and his death-defying navigation of the

Amazon—river of darkness, pathway to gold.

In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his well-born lieutenant

Francisco Orellana set off from Quito in search of La Canela, South America’s

rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving

an enormous retinue of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs,

and other animals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition begin

to disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarish jungle,

following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelessly lost in the swampy

labyrinth, their numbers diminishing daily through disease, starvation, and

Indian attacks, Pizarro and Orellana made a fateful decision to separate.

While Pizarro eventually returned home barefoot and in rags, Orellana and

fifty-seven men, in a few fragile craft, continued downriver into the unknown

reaches of the mighty Amazon, serenaded by native war drums and the eerie

cries of exotic predators. Theirs would be the greater glory.

Interweaving eyewitness accounts of the quest with newly uncovered details,

Buddy Levy reconstructs the seminal journey that has electrified adventurers

ever since, as Orellana became the first European to navigate and explore the

entire length of the world’s largest river. Levy gives a long-overdue account

of the native populations—some peaceful and welcoming, offering sustenance and

life-saving guidance, others ferociously hostile, subjecting the invaders to

gauntlets of unremitting attack and intimations of terrifying rituals. And

here is the Amazon itself, a powerful presence whose every twist and turn held

the promise of new wonders both natural and man-made, as well as the ever-

present risk of death—a river that would hold Orellana in its irresistible

embrace to the end of his life.

Overflowing with violence and beauty, nobility and tragedy, _River of

Darkness_ is both riveting history and a breathtaking adventure that will

sweep readers along on an epic voyage unlike any other.

_From the Hardcover edition._