Notes

PROLOGUE

1 rumbling the earth with great quakes J. M. Cohen, Journeys Down the Amazon (London, 1975), 18–19.

2 So they built a boat Ibid., 24–25; Brendan Bernard, Pizarro, Orellana, and the Exploration of the Amazon (New York, 1991), 14–16; John Hemming, Tree of Rivers (New York, 2008), 23–24.

CHAPTER ONE: A CONFLUENCE OF CONQUISTADORS

1 The vast and rugged lands of Extremadura Arthur Helps, The Life of Pizarro (London, 1896), 1–3; Rafael Varón Gabai, Francisco Pizarro and His Brothers: The Illusion of Power in Sixteenth-Century Peru (Norman, Oklahoma, and London, 1997), 3–10; Hammond Innes, The Conquistadors (New York, 1969), 22–23; Kim MacQuarrie, The Last Days of the Incas (New York, 2007), 18–22.

2 “a gentleman of noble blood, and a person of honor” José Toribio Medina, ed., translated by Bertram T. Lee and edited by H. C. Heaton, The Discovery of the Amazon (New York, 1988), 264, 36, 36n. The exact date of Orellana’s birth remains unknown, but sources, including his own testimony made on the island of Margarita in 1542, generally agree that the year was 1511.

3 Orellana claims to have arrived in the Indies in 1527 Medina, Discovery, 37.

4 “he performed his first feats of arms as a conquistador” Ibid., 37.

5 that, after hacking their way across the brambly isthmus Innes, Conquistadors, 30 and 38.

6 “in the conquests of Lima and Trujillo” Medina, Discovery, 37–38.

7 Of this deeply loyal band of brothers For a thorough (and in some ways exhausting and confusing) overview of the complex Pizarro family lineage, see James Lockhart, The Men of Cajamarca: A Social and Biographical Study of the First Conquerors of Peru (Austin, 1972), 28–35; see also Gabai, Francisco Pizarro and His Brothers, 3–10; Hoffman Birney, Brothers of Doom: The Story of the Pizarros of Peru (New York, 1942), 3; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 37.

8 skilled beyond his years The exact date of Gonzalo Pizarro’s birth is unknown. It is typically listed as c. 1502–6.

9 “the best lance in Peru” William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru (New York, 2005), 348–49 and 497; Michael Wood, Conquistadors (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000), 191–92; Walker Chapman, The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado (Indianapolis, Kansas City, and New York, 1967), 142; Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 175–78.

10 Tall and well proportioned Agustín de Zárate, translated and introduced by J. M. Cohen, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru (Baltimore, 1968), 242–43.

11 The sight proved curious and intriguing Prescott, Conquest of Peru 131–33; Pedro de Cieza de León, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, edited and translated by Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook (Durham, North Carolina, and London, 1998), 74–77; MacQuarrie, Last Days, 27–28; Innes, Conquistadors, 210. See also, on balsa craft, the interesting article by Thor Heyerdahl, “The Balsa Raft in Aboriginal Navigation off Peru and Ecuador,” in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 3 (Autumn 1955): 251–64.

12 “They were carrying many pieces of gold” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 28; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 133; Cieza de León, Discovery, 76.

13 “This line signifies labor” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 29; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 142. Different versions of this speech exist in various translations.

14 Francisco Pizarro had discovered the Incas Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 133 and 145–47; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 29–30; Cieza de León, Discovery, 76, 103–13.

15 earned him the title of Marquis de Valle Hugh Thomas, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés, and the Fall of Old Mexico (New York, 1993), 597–98; Buddy Levy, Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (New York, 2008), 317–18.

16 “discovery and conquest in the province of Peru—or New Castille” Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 162–63.

17 “Some of the strangers, he was told, rode giant animals” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 53–54.

18 “such magnificent roads could be found nowhere in Christendom” Bernard, Exploration, 31. For a detailed description of the complex Inca road system, see Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (New York, 2005), 85–86.

19 “made water [urinated] … out of sheer terror” Quoted in Mann, 1491, 80.

20 “large gold and silver disks like crowns on their heads” Quoted in John Hemming, The Conquest of the Incas (San Diego, New York, and London, 1970), 38.

21 Peru now lay in the hands of Francisco Pizarro For detailed analysis and descriptions of the massacre at Cajamarca, see Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 35–45; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 77–85; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 213–29.

22 “Atahualpa said that he would give a room full of gold” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 96; also in Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 47–49, and Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 225–26 and 243–44. Hemming says Atahualpa claimed the rooms could be filled in two months.

23 the greatest empire on the face of the earth Charles C. Mann points out that in 1491 the Inca Empire was bigger than the Triple Alliance of the Aztecs in Mexico, the Ming Dynasty in China, and the Ottoman Empire. See Mann, 1491, 64.

24 melting down six hundred pounds of gold per day Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 72–73; John Hemming, The Search for El Dorado (New York, 1978), 45; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 170–71.

25 “The riches and greatness of Peru” Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, 45.

26 pay taxes to the Spaniards in the form of goods and services Lesley Byrd Simpson, The Encomienda in New Spain (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966); Hernán Cortés, Letters from Mexico, edited, translated, and introduced by Anthony Pagden (New Haven, 2001), 498; and James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560: A Colonial Society (Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1968).

27 “having left the said cities freed from siege” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 39 and 264n.

28 Orellana next played … while the Pizarro troops suffered only nine casualties Medina, Discovery, 39–40; Pedro de Cieza de León, Civil Wars in Peru: The War of Salinas, translated by Sir Clements Markham (London, Hakluyt Society, 1923), 195–202; Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 233; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 329–32.

29 “with the aid of men whom I took along” Medina, Discovery, 263; Anthony Smith, Explorers of the Amazon (New York, 1990), 43.

30 “the said province under the yoke of Spain” Medina, Discovery, 263.

31a spot so fertile and so rich” Ibid.

32 “procurations and appointments, making him lieutenant-governor” Ibid., 42.

CHAPTER TWO: BIRTH OF THE GOLDEN DREAM

1 tribes clad in golden ornamentation and jewelry Hemming, El Dorado, 108; Chapman, Golden Dream, 140–41.

2 His exploits included a heroic climb Levy, Conquistador, 96–97; Hemming, El Dorado, 10.

3 the Amazon remained entirely unexplored by Europeans Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492–1616 (New York, 1974), 213.

4 “emeralds as big as a man’s fist” Quoted in Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland, translated and edited by Thomasina Ross, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799–1804, vol. 3 (London, 1908), 40.

5 “On going up a certain number of suns [a few days]” Ibid., 40.

6 were living among Amazonian tribes somewhere upriver Medina, Discovery, 210–11; Smith, Explorers, 71–72.

7 Ordaz landed on the island of Trinidad F. A. Kirkpatrick, The Spanish Conquistadors (London, 1934), 300–301; Edward J. Goodman, The Explorers of South America (New York, 1972), 79–80; Hemming, El Dorado, 10–11; Chapman, Golden Dream, 54–55; A. F. Bandelier, The Gilded Man (El Dorado) (New York, 1893), 34–35.

8 “a very powerful prince with one eye” Quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 57; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 36.

9 they would be forced to abandon the boats Bandelier, Gilded Man, 35; Chapman, Golden Dream, 56.

10 The Spaniards optimistically (and erroneously) interpreted this pantomime Kirkpatrick, Spanish Conquistadors, 301.

11 “He said that there was much of that metal” Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 15; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 36.

12 “less than stags, but fit for riding like the Spanish horses” Quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 57.

13 “He who goes to the Orinoco” Quoted in Gerard Helferich, Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey That Changed the Way We See the World (New York, 2004), 124.

14 Quesada, too, had heard stories R. B. Cunninghame Graham, The Conquest of New Granada: Being the Life of Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada (Boston and New York, 1922), 90–91; Chapman, Golden Dream, 103–6. See also Joyce Lorimer, editor, Sir Walter Raleigh’s Discoverie of Guiana (London, 2006), 49n, which describes the origins of the El Dorado mythology among the Misc or Chibcha around Bogotá in the late 1530s, providing the impetus and the prelude to the Pizarro/Orellana expedition.

CHAPTER THREE: INTO THE ANDES

1 “the most laborious expedition that has been undertaken in these Indies” Pedro de Cieza de León, Civil Wars in Peru: The War of Chupas (London, 1917), 56.

2 La Canela—the Cinnamon Valley … Pineda agreed to the terms Ibid., 57; Cohen, Journeys, 14–15; Medina, Discovery, 46.

3 “nobles of the highest ranks” Medina, Discovery, 46.

4 “carried nothing but a sword and a shield” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 57. Some sources put the total number of men as high as 340, and others at 280. Similarly, the numbers of the swine and the hounds vary. Garcilaso gives 4,000 swine and a flock of llamas, and 340 men, 150 cavalry, with the remainder infantry (León claims 5,000 swine); Garcilaso de la Vega, translated and with an introduction by Harold V. Livermore, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Part 2 (Austin and London, 1966), 873–74; Medina, Discovery, 46; Cohen, Journeys, 15; Smith, Explorers, 45. The number of dogs varies as well, from 900 at the lower end to 2,000 at the upper. See John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner, Dogs of the Conquest (Norman, Oklahoma, 1983), 119–22.

5 ancient relatives of pines David L. Pearson and Les Beletsky, Travellers’ Wildlife Guides: Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands (Northampton, Massachusetts, 2005), 25–26 and 252–55.

6 The Indians, apparently intimidated Vega, Royal Commentaries, 874.

7 Although eruptions of great magnitude were common Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 192. Vega, Royal Commentaries, 874.

8 “We came to very rugged wooded country” Medina, Discovery, 245.

9 “It just rained; it never stopped” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 195.

10 “We continued our journey” Medina, Discovery, 245.

11 “When Orellana’s party saw him” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 58.

12 “carrying only a sword and a shield” Medina, Discovery, 168.

13 “big leaves like laurels” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 875.

14 “This is cinnamon of the most perfect kind” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 59. The trees were actually Nectandra and Ocotea, related to avocados, and of the magnolia family.

15 “So he [Pizarro] ordered some canes” Ibid., 60.

16 “who tore them to pieces with their teeth” Ibid.

17 “fertile and abundant province” Ibid., 61.

18 “We found the trees which bear cinnamon” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 246.

19 He had found the upper reaches of the Napo Wood, Conquistadors, 196.

20 “ranges of forest clad and rugged mountains” Ibid. Also in Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 61.

CHAPTER FOUR: EL BARCO AND THE SAN PEDRO

1 “combs and knives” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 62; Chapman, Golden Dream, 148.

2 It was an awesome, humbling spectacle Vega, Royal Commentaries, Part 2, 876. Vega says that Pizarro and his men could hear the San Rafael Falls from “six leagues,” or more than twenty miles. See also Wood, Conquistadors, 197.

3 “so narrow it was not twenty feet across” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 197. Vega claims that the gorge is closer to 1,500 feet high, though that strains credibility given the topography.

4 “rash even to look down” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 876–77.

5 “The rest fled in astonishment” Ibid., 876.

6 “He was fifteen days going and coming” Gonzalo Pizarro, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 246.

7 “As soon as he [Ribera] came with this story” Medina, Discovery, 246. See also Betty Meggers, Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise (Washington and London, 1996), 122–30, and Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 30.

8 “must flow down to the Sweet Sea” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 64. Also quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 199.

9 “a beautiful and abundantly flowing river” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 200.

10 “all have their homes and living quarters” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 247.

11 “reduce to a peaceful attitude of mind” Ibid.

12 “the chief wanted to plunge into the river and to take flight” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 64.

13 “because there were frequently on the river” Medina, Discovery, 247.

14 The sickest were abandoned Levy, Conquistador, 213–14.

15 including Arawakan, Panoan, and Tupian Harriet E. Manelis Klein, “Genetic Relatedness and Language Distributions in Amazonia,” in Roosevelt, Amazonian Indians from Prehistory to the Present, 343–46.

16 “I found it advisable to build a brigantine” Gonzalo Pizarro, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 247.

17 “showed himself more active than anyone else” Medina, Discovery, 54; Cohen, Journeys, 25; Medina, Discovery, 169.

18 “They set up a forge” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 877.

19 The Spaniards also learned from the natives Dr. Robert Carneiro, from personal notes on manuscript, August 10, 2009.

20 “water tight and strong, although not very large” Toribio de Ortiguera, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 314–15.

21 They christened the craft the San Pedro The exact dimensions of the craft are not recorded. Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 54n, claims that the boat could hold up to twenty men. See also Cohen, Journeys, 25.

22 “if we did not find any good country” Pizarro, letter to the king, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 247.

23 “which afforded no small help to [the men] in their need” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 65.

24 “Continuing their journey down the river bank” Ibid.

25 “beginning to feel the pangs of hunger” Ibid.

26 “All of the companions were greatly dissatisfied” Friar Gaspar de Carvajal, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 170.

27 The friars held a somber mass Wood, Conquistadors, 202–3.

28 “vast one and that there was no food” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 248; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 878; Chapman, Golden Dream, 148.

29 “plenty of food and rich in gold” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 878.

30 “Being confident that Captain Orellana would do as he said” Gonzalo Pizarro, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 248.

31 On board they retained most of the equipment Cohen, Journeys, 26–27; Smith, Explorers, 52; Wood, Conquistadors, 205.

32 (twenty-two of the worthy craft) The number of canoes varies among the sources, cited as anywhere from ten to twenty-two.

CHAPTER FIVE: THE SPLIT

1 “hauling the boat out of the water and fastening a piece of plank on it” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 171.

2 “owing to the effect of many other rivers” Ibid.

3 “the Captain and the companions conferred” Ibid.

4 “We reached a state of privation” Ibid., 172.

5 “Our Lord deliver us” Ibid., 171.

6 “He would see fit to bring us to a haven of safety” Ibid., 172.

7 “Sick and sound alike” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 36.

8 “The Captain was the one who heard them first” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 173; Cohen, Journeys, 37; Chapman, Golden Dream, 156; Smith, Explorers, 55–56.

9 “And so that night a heavy watch was kept, the Captain not sleeping” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 173.

10 “for they had had their fill of living on roots” Ibid.

11 “We heard in the villages” Ibid.

12 manioc beer called chicha Linda Mowat, Cassava and Chicha: Bread and Beer of the Amazonian Indians (Aylesbury, UK, 1989), 45–46. See also Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, translated and edited by Sterling A. Stoudemire, Natural History of the West Indies (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1959), 39. It is called masato in Peruvian Montana.

13 “their shields on their shoulders” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 174; Cohen, Journeys, 37–38; Richard Muller, Orellana’s Discovery of the Amazon River (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1937), 38; Chapman, Golden Dream, 156.

14 He asked that they take these Cohen, Journeys, 38; Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 174; Smith, Explorers, 55.

15 Orellana understood this man to be a chief Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 175; Smith, Explorers, 55; Cohen, Journeys, 38.

16 “meats, partridges, turkeys, and fish of many sorts” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 175. Cohen, Journeys, 38.

17 “his knowledge of the language” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 27.

18 Seven of the Spaniards Bernard, Exploration, 44.

19 The people of Imara Wood, Conquistadors, 208.

20 Canoes were moored or beached Cohen, Journeys, 39.

21 Despite Orellana’s linguistic skills Levy, Conquistador, 21.

22 “spoke to them at great length” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 177; Cohen, Journeys, 39.

23 “on the subject of what steps it was proper to take” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 176.

24 “The companions were very happy” Ibid.

25 “news of what was happening” Ibid., 178.

26 Orellana, as fair and diplomatic Cohen, Journeys, 42.

27 “that kind treatment was the proper procedure to be followed” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 176.

CHAPTER SIX: THE PLIGHT OF GONZALO PIZARRO

1 “There was not even any track to follow” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 67.

2 “the heavens poured down water” Ibid.

3 “personally captured … five canoes from the Indians” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 249.

4 “with a dozen Spaniards” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 68.

5 “We were forced to eat the little buds of a plant” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 212.

6 “wild herbs and coarse fruits” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 68.

7 the Land of Cinnamon Hemming, Search for El Dorado, 108.

8 “without wasting any of the entrails” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 68.

9 “larger and mightier than the one they had been navigating” Ibid., 69.

10 “the gold-bearer” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 213.

11 “cuts made by wood knives and swords” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 69.

12 “palm shoots and some fruit stones” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 248–49.

13 “many very thick patches of yuca” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 69; Cohen, Journeys, 28.

14 After the members of the scouting party were satiated The sources differ here, some saying that Pineda’s men ate the yuca raw, others suggesting that Pineda took the time to cook the tubers. Since Pineda was able to successfully return to Gonzalo Pizarro with his canoes loaded with the yuca, it seems safe to assume that he indeed must have cooked the plant, or else his men would have been too sick to paddle the difficult journey back up the Napo. See Wood, Conquistadors, 213 (who says “Having cooked for themselves and eaten …”); see also Cohen, Journeys, 28, who says “His men … ate them cooked and unwashed.”

15 “nothing but saddle and stirrup leathers” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 214; Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 70.

16 “saw the canoes and learnt what they brought, and they all wept for joy” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 69–70.

17 “I determined to take the expeditionary force” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 249.

18 “As all came in an exhausted state” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 70.

19 “root of white color, and rather thick” Ibid.

20 “lost his reason and became mad” Ibid.

21 “super-crop that enabled man to evolve from foraging to farming” Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 26.

22 “Subtle morphological traits differentiate” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 26.

23 Bitter manioc, on the other hand Mowat, Cassava and Chicha, 7; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 26; Meggers, Amazonia, 47–49, 58, 60. According to Dr. Robert Carneiro, “Even in the case of ‘sweet’ varieties of manioc there is a small amount of prussic acid in the phelloderm, the thin, smooth, white layer that covers the tuber just below the flaky brown skin. So ingesting the phelloderm along with the rest of the tuber, as famished men would no doubt have done, especially since the phelloderm is not readily distinguishable or separable from the rest of the tuber, would very possibly have resulted in some serious symptoms.” From his editorial notes on River of Darkness, August 24, 2009.

24 The women bend over these graters Mowat, Cassava and Chicha, 21–27.

25 “groundbreaking invention” Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 26. Dr. Robert Carneiro points out, however, “The tipiti is only the most advanced and most recent device for squeezing the juice out of poisonous manioc. Over much of Amazonia (e.g., the Upper Xingu), other squeezing devices are used, and were used well before the tipiti was invented.” From editorial notes on River of Darkness, August 24, 2009.

26 second only to rice as a crop of global significance Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 26–27. See also Mowat, Cassava and Chicha, 7–47; and Anna Roosevelt, Parmana: Prehistoric Maize and Manioc Subsistence Along the Amazon and Orinoco (New York, 1980), 136–37 and 119–39; and Mann, 1491, 297–98.

27 “very sick and sore” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 70.

28 “themselves grated the yucas” Ibid., 71. Dr. Robert Carneiro notes here, “To be specific, the ‘sharp thorns’ are those of the spiny aerial root of the palm Iriartea exorrhiza. The root, cut from the palm, is used whole, without the thorns being removed from it.” From editorial notes on River of Darkness, August 24, 2009.

29 “rested after a fashion” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 249.

30 “Captain Orellana told me” Ibid., 248.

31 Paying no heed Ibid.

CHAPTER SEVEN: ST. EULALIA’S CONFLUENCE—THE AMAZON

1 “The Captain, seeing that it was necessary” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 176.

2 “jewels and gold medallions” Ibid., 177.

3 “Never did the Captain permit” Ibid.

4 He said that as a boy Ibid.; Cohen, Journeys, 41; Wood, Conquistadors, 209; Smith, Explorers, 70–71.

5 women warriors or “Amazons” For interesting discussions of the origins of Amazonian mythology, see Jessica Amanda Salmonson, The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era (New York, 1991), ix–xii; Abby Wettan Kleinbaum, The War Against the Amazons (New York, 1983), 1–38; and Lyn Webster Wilde, On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History (New York, 1999), 1–9.

6 “an island inhabited only by women” Hernán Cortés, Letters from Mexico, 298–300; Hemming, El Dorado, 90.

7 Similar tales persisted Hemming, El Dorado, 90.

8 “He ordered at once some bellows” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 40–41.

9 The mosquitoes were so thick Ibid., 41.

10 “two thousand very good nails” Medina, Discovery, 178.

11 “We laid in what foodstuffs we could” Ibid., 178–79.

12 “feared certain death” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 43.

13 “may occur and come to pass” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 73.

14 “so up-hill a journey” Ibid., 254.

15 “by which at least their lives might be saved” Ibid., 74 and 74n, 178; Cohen, Journeys, 43.

16 “strange and hitherto never experienced voyage of discovery” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 169.

17 Orellana directed the laden San Pedro Bernard, Exploration, 47.

18 “many Indians in canoes ready to defend the landing place” Oviedo, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 412.

19 “expecting never to see them again” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 179; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 413; Bernard, Exploration, 47.

20 “many hardships and extraordinary dangers” Quoted in Bernard, Exploration, 47.

21 “They brought back turtles” Oviedo, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 414.

22 “The one which came in on the right side” Ibid. There is some disagreement among the sources about the exact date of reaching the Amazon (Maranon), but Orellana and his men named the confluence St. Eulalia’s Confluence, honoring their arrival at this place on February 12, 1542.A number of other sources date the arrival at February 11, 1542.

23 “It was so wide from bank to bank” Oviedo, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 414.

24 More than 4,500 miles long … it contains an island the size of Switzerland Because precise river distances are extremely difficult to measure (they are not straight lines, for one thing), the distance given here of 4,000 miles is based on sources that measure from tributary origins at the headwaters. Most serious scientific sources consider the Amazon measured from its headwaters on the Ucayali in Peru. In 2001 the National Geographic Society accepted a measurement put forth by a Polish expedition, which gave the number as 4,650 miles. See Michael Goulding, The Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon (Washington and London, 2003), 23 and 99; Bernard, Exploration, 49; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 325–29.

25 “came with peaceful intent” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 180.

26 “The Indians remained very happy” Ibid., 181.

27 “many partridges like those of our Spain” Ibid., 181; Cohen, Journeys, 46.

28 “It was not long before we saw many Indians” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 181; Cohen, Journeys, 46.

29 “The Captain leaped out on land” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 182.

30 The overlord leapt out on land Ibid. There exist a number of feline species in this area, and all would have been hunted by the indigenous peoples. These include the puma, the jaguar, the ocelot, the margay, and the jaguarundi.

31 “worshipped a single God” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 182.

32 “to whom belonged the territory” Ibid., 183.

33 “since there was a good supply of materials” Ibid., 184.

34 Once the Spaniards entered their realm Wood, Conquistadors, 218; John Augustine Zahm, The Quest of El Dorado (New York and London, 1917), 73.

35 “Old men and women not suited for slavery” Meggers, Amazonia, 130.

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE VICTORIA

1 He offered to serve in the role of foreman Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 184 and 239n; Cohen, Journeys, 47.

2 “And thereupon the Captain ordered” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 184; Cohen, Journeys, 47; Wood, Conquistadors, 218–19.

3 “very far away” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 184.

4 “drive the mosquitoes away from him” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 418.

5 “There came to see the Captain” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 186.

6 “many things to present” Ibid.; Cohen, Journeys, 47.

7 It has been suggested Cohen, Journeys, 48.

8 “misshapen hunchbacks and dwarves and albinos” Levy, Conquistador, 116.

9 “sorcerers, daubed with whitewash” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 197.

10 “culture bearers” John Hemming, email correspondence with the author on February 17, 2009; Donald W. Lathrap, The Upper Amazon (New York, 1970), 22–44; Smith, Explorers, 63–64. Dr. Robert Carneiro, editorial notes on River of Darkness, August 26, 2009. The extent and range of the Arawak-speaking tribes is controversial; Carneiro disagrees with Hemming, suggesting that the Arawak-speaking tribes on the Ucayali—the Piro and the Campa (Ashaninka)—would be very high up the river and likely not the groups that Orellana encountered.

11 While working on the brigantine Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 69 and 186.

12 “I preached every Sunday” Ibid., 187.

13 Within minutes he had himself “elected” chief justice Levy, Conquistador, 41–42.

14 “cavaliers and hidalgos, comrades, able-bodied men” Scrivener Isásaga letter, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 258.

15 “to go and search for the Governor” Ibid.

16 “We, perceiving and realizing the evil effects” Ibid., 259.

17 “and the Holy Mary” Ibid., 262.

18 In addition to Robles Cohen, Journeys, 49; Hemming, El Dorado, 108–9.

19 “The Captain requested of me” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 187.

20 (perhaps resin from local rubber trees or black beeswax) Dr. Robert Carneiro points out that while they might have used latex from a rubber tree, this “pitch” was “more likely from black beeswax, which the Indians use for things like caulking, etc.” From Carneiro editorial notes on River of Darkness, August 26, 2009.

21 nineteen joas … “quite large enough for navigating at sea” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 189 and 240n. Medina points out that the “joa” or “goa” is not exactly a unit of measure, but rather a nautical feature, an addition made to the end of the ribs to hold the rail; quoted in Smith, Explorers, 63. Michael Wood, in Conquistadors, 219, puts the boat at around twenty-four feet in length but does not explain how he arrives at that figure.

22 “ordered that all the men be ready” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 187.

23 Aparia the Great’s chiefdom Robert Carneiro, “The Chiefdom: Precursor to the State,” 37–79, in Grant D. Jones and Robert R. Kautz, The Transition to Statehood in the New World (New York, 1981). See also Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, Handbook of South American Archaeology (New York, 2008), 10 and 371–72.

24 The gunpowder … sleek and streamlined For detailed descriptions of conquistador weaponry, see John Pohl and Charles M. Robinson III, Aztecs and Conquistadors: The Spanish Invasion and the Collapse of the Aztec Empire (New York, 2005), 46–51.

25 “complete this novel voyage of discovery” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 187.

CHAPTER NINE: RIVER OF DARKNESS, BROTHERS OF DOOM

1 “a lover of warfare and very patient of hardship” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 242.

2 “swelled in such a way that they could not walk on their feet” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 72.

3 “hawks’ bells, combs, and other trifles” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 72–73.

4 Desperate to discover Ibid., 72; Wood, Conquistadors, 214; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 198; Smith, Explorers, 78; Chapman, Golden Dream, 177.

5 likely of the Secoya peoples Lathrap, Upper Amazon, 150–53. Lathrap suggests that at this time, this portion of the Aguarico was populated by a branch of the Omagua, called the Omagua-yete, who had migrated far upriver.

6 “there were no longer any Indians” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 73.

7 “he knew not in what land he was” Ibid.

8 “the worst march ever in the Indies” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 215.

9 “mountainous, with great ranges” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 250.

10 “In this condition they went on” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 73–74.

11 “owing to the density of the forest” Ibid.; Chapman, Golden Dream, 177.

12 “for it had been many days” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 75.

13 The river here was rapid Ibid., 75–76; Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 216.

14 The Spaniards were reduced to fantasizing Birney, Brothers of Doom, 256.

15 these poor animals were subjected Bernard, Exploration, 92; Wood, Conquistadors, 215.

16 All the remaining horses Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 250.

17 Amazingly, it had taken them only a day and a half Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 76.

18 “they would find inhabitants” Ibid., 76.

19 “armed with their swords and bucklers” Ibid., 290.

20 “a great comet traversing the heavens” Ibid., 291; Wood, Conquistadors, 216; Chapman, Golden Dream, 178–79.

21 “the object he most prized was dead” Quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 179; Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 291; Wood, Conquistadors, 216 (although Wood offers another translation of the dream, reading “Pizarro would soon learn of the death of the person nearest to his heart”).

22 “They were traveling almost naked” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 198.

23 Arriving at the gates of the city Ibid., 198–99; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 915–16.

CHAPTER TEN: THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANCISCO PIZARRO

1 “began to eat with such a desire” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 915.

2 “what they had lacked most had been salt” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 198.

3 “and to govern the millions of new vassals” MacQuarrie, Last Days, 334.

4 Francisco loved the physicality of the work Ibid.; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 206–10.

5 Hernando arrived with a ship full of gold MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 336; Cieza de León, Civil Wars in Peru: The War of Las Salinas (London, 1923), 246–48; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 862–65; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 184–87.

6 So in June 1541 Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 96–97; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 199–200; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 882–83.

7 “so boyish that he was not adapted” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 97.

8 spilled the entire plan to his priest Ibid., 97–98; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 340.

9 “If we show determination” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 103–4.

10 “Death to tyrants!” and “Long live the king!” Ibid., 104; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 341; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 202–3.

11 “Arm! Arm! The men of Chile are coming to murder the Marquis!” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 106; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 887.

12 “most of them … showing great cowardice” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 106; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 203.

13 “He instantly fell in a death struggle” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 107; MacQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas, 342.

14 “At them, brother!” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 204.

15 Pizarro managed to run the first man through Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 204; Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 108.

16 “Those of Chile … delivered blows” Cieza de León, War of Chupas, 108–9.

17 “The moon, being full and bright” Ibid., 109.

18 “put on his spurs” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 889; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 205.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: ON THE MARANON TO THE REALM OF MACHIPARO

1 “furthest inland deep-ocean port in the world” Mann, 1491, 282.

2 “many painted people who flocked to the ships” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 13.

3 The tides near the river mouth Edward J. Goodman, The Explorers of South America (New York, 1972), 12.

4 the maran-i-hobo or cashew tree Cohen, Journeys, 52; Medina, Discovery, 154–63.

5 “for along the great rivers of the Old World” Cohen, Journeys, 53.

6 “recognized that we were now outside” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 189.

7 “endured more hardships and more hunger” Ibid.

8 “if it had not been observed by so many witnesses” Ibid.

9 “the fish, being opened up” Ibid., 190; Cohen, Journeys, 54.

10 “Before we had come within two leagues” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 190; quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 55.

11 Within his chiefdom Wood, Conquistadors, 220; Mann, 1491, 283–84; Hemming, El Dorado, 116.

12 “threatening as if they were going to devour” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 190.

13 “it seemed as if they wanted to seize hold” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 191. Interestingly, Toribio de Ortiguera records a different opening sequence to this initial battle with Machiparo’s armies. In his account, which seems to be recorded only by Hemming (among the modern historians), the initial meeting goes like this: “[A village called] Machiparo, from which a few Indians in canoes came out on the river to meet them, and they gave them to understand that their chief and overlord desired to see them and find out of what nationality they were and whither they were bound and what they were looking for; and they indicated to them that they should leap out on land. The Spaniards moved on in their brigantines in the direction of the shore, although with considerable caution, formed in good order, their arquebuses loaded, their matches lighted, their crossbows with cords drawn back and with their arrows in them. At the time, then, that they pulled in there, as soon as they had gotten up to the village, as the chief saw them to be of different dress and aspect from all the other people that he had ever seen, and all bearded (for the Indians are not), to a certain degree he revered them, and … he ordered his subjects to leave a section of the village free, with all the food that was in it … for consumption …” Ortiguera, in Medina, Discovery, 317–18. In this version, only after the Spaniards became unruly and poor guests did Machiparo order his men to attack. There are a few significant differences and contradictions in this version—one is that Carvajal says the powder was damp, and that contradicts the above, in which they had their “matches lighted”; also, Carvajal records no direct meeting with the chief Machiparo, though Ortiguera does. See Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 29, and El Dorado, 115. Most historians seem to side with Carvajal’s version, which is at any rate in keeping with what Aparia the Great predicted would happen when the Spaniards reached Machiparo’s kingdom.

14 “There were a great number of men” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 191.

15 “the great extent of the settlement” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 191; Cohen, Journeys, 56; Ortiguera, in Medina, Discovery, 318; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 30; Smith, Explorers, 66.

16 “There was a great quantity of food” Medina, Discovery, 192.

17 “large quantities of honey from bees” Ortiguera, in Medina, Discovery, 319.

18 “with a small amount [of manatee]” Cristóbal de Acuña, quoted in Meggers, Amazonia, 127.

19 “larger than a good sized wheel” Quoted in Meggers, Amazonia, 126. The turtle farming process is described in detail here also by Cristóbal de Acuña, in Meggers, Amazonia, 126–27; also reproduced in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 30; see also Hemming, El Dorado, 115.

20 He told them to hurry Cohen, Journeys, 56; Smith, Explorers, 66.

21 “applying to the [babies’] forehead a small board” Samuel Fritz, quoted in Meggers, Amazonia, 125.

22 “more like a poorly shaped bishop’s miter” Acuña, quoted in Meggers, Amazonia, 125. Also in Samuel Fritz, Journal of the Travels and Labours of Father Samuel Fritz in the River of the Amazons Between 1686 and 1723, translated from the Evora manuscript and edited by the Reverend Dr. George Edmundson (Hakluyt Society, London, 1922), 47. See also Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 56.

23 “came back at Cristóbal Maldonado” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 193.

24 “fought so courageously” Ibid., 194.

25 One experienced fighter named Blas de Medina Cohen, Journeys, 57.

26 “no other remedy but a certain charm” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 195; Cohen, Journeys, 58.

27 acts of superstition and charms Medina, Discovery, 241n. Cohen, Journeys, 58. Some of the practices of Omagua religion and magic are described in Meggers, Amazonia, 130. For a fascinating, far-reaching, and detailed study of Amazonian witchcraft, sorcery, and shamanism, see Neil L. Whitehead and Robin Wright, editors, In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia (Durham, North Carolina, and London, 2004).

28 “all were cured except the one who died” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 195.

29 “recalling to them the hardships already endured” Ibid., 195.

30 “explore the country” Ibid., 195; Cohen, Journeys, 58.

CHAPTER TWELVE: AMONG THE OMAGUA

1 “again and again” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 196.

2 the black wood of the chonta palm Dr. Robert Carneiro, from editorial notes on River of Darkness, September 7, 2009.

3 “the arrow is taken in the right hand” Quoted in Meggers, Amazonia, 127.

4 “We saw ourselves in the midst” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 197.

5 “on the land the men who appeared” Ibid.

6 One chronicler said Medina, footnote about variant reading to Carvajal account, in Discovery, 197n. Also in Cohen, Journeys, 59.

7 Machiparo and his people would do whatever it took Carlos Fausto, “A Blend of Blood and Tobacco: Shamans and Jaguars Among the Parakana of Eastern Amazonia,” in Whitehead and Wright, In Darkness and Secrecy, 159, 162, and 170.

8 “possess devastating power” Johannes Wilbert, “The Order of Dark Shamans Among the Waroa,” in Whitehead and Wright, In Darkness and Secrecy, 29.

9 “To perform assaultive sorcery” Ibid., 31–32.

10 “Those on the water resolved to wipe us out” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 198.

11 “it was all of one tongue” Ibid.

12 “all inhabited, for there was not from village to village a crossbow shot” Quoted in Mann, 1491, 284; also quoted in Antonio Porro, “Social Organization and Political Power in the Amazon Floodplain,” in Roosevelt, Amazonian Indians, 83.

13 “without there intervening any space” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 198.

14 “there was a very great overlord” Ibid. Also in Cohen, Journeys, 60; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 50. Also quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 160.

15 “bent on seizing and unmooring the brigantines” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 199; Cohen, Journeys, 61.

16 “So we remained resting” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 200; Smith, Explorers, 69.

17 “very fine highways” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 200; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 51.

18 well more than a thousand miles of hostile and uncharted river Wood, Conquistadors, 221.

19 “So wide was it” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 200; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 51.

20 “They attacked us so pitilessly” Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 51.

21 The few natives resisted Ibid., 52; Cohen, Journeys, 62.

22 “very large, with a capacity of more than twenty-five arrobas” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 201; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52.

23 “Other small pieces such as plates and bowls” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 201; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52; See also Hemming, El Dorado, 116; Meggers, Amazonia, 128; and Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 271.

24 on the order of hundreds of thousands of people Wood, Conquistadors, 221, suggests that in 1542 in Amazonia there were three or four million people all told.

25 China Town, or Pottery Village Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 425, uses the term “Loza,” or “Porcelainville.” Also Wood, Conquistadors, 221; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 30.

26 “elaborate geometric patterns” Anna C. Roosevelt, “The Maritime, Highland, Forest Dynamic and the Origins of Complex Culture,” in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, vol. 3, South America, part 1, edited by Frank Solomon and Stuart B. Schwartz (Cambridge, 2000), 332. See also Anna C. Roosevelt, Moundbuilders of the Amazon: Geophysical Archaeology on Marajo Island, Brazil (San Diego, 1991), 48–49. The style is also called “Santarém.”

27 These few friendly locals Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 201; Cohen, Journeys, 62; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52.

28 “There were two idols woven out of feathers” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 201; Cohen, Journeys, 62. See also Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52.

29 “When they got to a small square” Bernal Díaz, quoted in Levy, Conquistador, 298.

30 “in the heart of the forest” Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52.

31 “our intention was merely to search” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 202; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 52.

32 “Of all the [people] who inhabit the banks of the Maranon” Quoted in Clements R. Markham, Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons, 1539, 1540, 1639 (New York, 1963), 175.

33 “The Omagua are the Phoenicians of the river” Ibid.

34 “the Omagua [used] elastic” Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 175; also Hemming, El Dorado, 116. Hemming here refers to the firsthand account made by French scientist Charles-Marie de La Condamine, who descended the Amazon in 1743 and observed the Omagua and other tribes that Orellana had first seen. Also Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 83. 135 “more like royal highways” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 202.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BIG BLACKWATER RIVER

1 “who has many subjects, and quite civilized ones” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 202; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 425. Also in Cohen, Journeys, 64; Chapman, Golden Dream, 160; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 31.

2 “very pleasing and attractive” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 203. Also Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 426. The reference to the llamas strains credibility, as the people of Amazonia are not known to have possessed beasts of burden, especially this far down the river. It is certainly conceivable, however, that the people of this tribe would have heard of them, as information spread far and wide throughout Amazonia by people moving up and down the many river systems.

3 “built in the trees like magpie nests” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 30–31. Details of the flooding variants are also found in Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 39 and 99–101.

4 “more than five hundred houses” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 426; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 53; Bernard, Exploration, 72.

5 Pueblo Vicioso, or Viciousville Bernard, Exploration, 72, and Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 426n.

6 “end of the province of the … overlord Paguana” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 204. Also in Cohen, Journeys, 64.

7 This extraordinary flatness Meggers, Amazonia, 8. Also Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 15 and 23–24.

8 “From there on we saw indications” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 426.

9 “We entered into another province” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 204. Also Cohen, Journeys, 64.

10 linking the Orinoco and Amazon basins Of interest here is the unique river system linking the Amazon and Orinoco known as the Casiquiare Canal, which is not a man-made canal but rather a natural one. According to John Hemming, “the land here is so flat [that] part of the Orinoco’s waters flow southwestwards and never rejoin the mother river. Instead, after 300 meandering kilometers, they flow into a headwater of the Negro and hence the Amazon.” Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 131.

11 “black as ink” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 204. Also quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 221; Chapman, Golden Dream, 161; Smith, Explorers, 69–70.

12 Its distinctive character … “that empty into the Negro” Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 215. Also see Douglas C. Daly and John C. Mitchell, “Lowland Vegetation of Tropical South America,” in Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas, edited by David L. Lentz (New York, 2000), 410.

13 “There has been no exaggeration” William Lewis Herndon, Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, edited and with an introduction by Hamilton Basso (New York, 1952), 168.

14 The Spaniards feasted Cohen, Journeys, 65; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 53–54.

15 “At this gate were two towers” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 205. Also recorded in Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 427; Chapman, Golden Dream, 161; Bernard, Exploration, 72; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 54.

16 they were subjects and tributaries Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 205. Also in Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 427; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 54; Chapman, Golden Dream, 161; Bernard, Exploration, 72; Cohen, Journeys, 65; Smith, Explorers, 71.

17 “which the Indians put on” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 427.

18 sacrificial idols and prayer houses For in-depth discussions of the sun in creation mythology and Amazonian cosmology, see Gerard Reichel-Dolmatoff, “Cosmology as Ecological Analysis: A View from the Rain Forest,” in Ritual and Belief (New York, 2001), 286–95. See also Gerard Reichel-Dolmatoff, Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the Tukano Indians (Chicago and London, 1971), 23–37. Here, the sun, as one of the twin brothers Sun and Moon, figures prevalently in the creation myth, the sun even creating the earth.

19 Warriors waved their arms defiantly Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 428; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 54.

20 The Spaniards found an abundance of drying fish Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 428.

21 “go on as we were accustomed” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 207.

22 “too kind-hearted a soul by far” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 220.

23 Orellana barked orders to his lieutenants Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 428; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 55.

24 “in order that the Indians from here on” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 208.

25 they could see people massing on the banks Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 429.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ENCOUNTERING THE AMAZONS

1 “We saw emptying in on the right side” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 209; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 430; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 56.

2 The muddy Madeira Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 24 and 147–50.

3 “beating their weapons together” Quoted in Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 56.

4 “temperate and one of very great productiveness” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 209.

5 “a fine looking settlement” Ibid. Also quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 71; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 56. See also Markham, Expeditions, 36–37 and 153.

6 “In those villages they have many poles” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 432.

7 the Province of the Gibbets Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 209; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 56.

8 “roads made by hand” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 210. Silverman and Isbell, Handbook of South American Archaeology, 172–74.

9 They found many turtles Ibid. Also Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 430–31; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery 56–57.

10 Quemados Villa, the Place of the Burned People Oveido, in Medina, Discovery, 431 and 431n.

11 “She said that nearby” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 73. Also in Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 210–11; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 57.

12 Some said it struck rocks Hemming, El Dorado, 11 and 146.

13 He immediately made Aguilar his translator The amazing saga of Aguilar and Guerrero is recorded variously in Levy, Conquistador, 12–18; Hammond Innes, The Conquistadors (New York, 1969), 5–52; Peter O. Koch, The Aztecs, the Conquistadors, and the Making of Mexican Culture (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2006), 28–31; Wood, Conquistadors, 29–31.

14 They lived among various tribes The journey is well documented, with some recent very good works. Most highly recommended is Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (New York, 2007). Also see Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, translated by Fanny Bandelier, revised and annotated by Harold Augenbraum, introduction by Ilan Stavans, Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition (New York, 2002).

15 “We decided to press forward” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 211.

16 He ordered the men to sleep Ibid.; Cohen, Journeys, 73; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 57. Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 431. In Oviedo’s version the Spaniards interpret the indications toward the interior made by the two Indians in the canoe to also be references of communication regarding the shipwrecked members of Diego de Ordaz’s party.

17 “buried in ashes” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 432; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 57; Smith, Explorers, 72.

18 “storehouse filled with liquor” Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 57.

19 “many military adornments” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 432. Also in Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 57. Carvajal says that the miters or hats were of neither cotton nor wool, but of some other, unknown fabric.

20 “their houses were glimmering white” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 212.

21 “During the whole day” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 433; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 58; Cohen, Journeys, 73–74.

22 Because it was tucked away on the river bend Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 433; Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 212; Cohen, Journeys, 74; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 58; Meggers, Amazonia, 133.

23 “dwellings of fishermen from the interior of the country” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 212.

24 “Here we came suddenly upon the excellent land” Ibid.

25 “He gave orders to shoot at them” Ibid.; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 58; Smith, Explorers, 72; Chapman, Golden Dream, 164.

26 “At the same moment there came out many” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 433; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 58; Chapman, Golden Dream, 164; Smith, Explorers, 72.

27 Cloudbursts of the arrows Cohen, Journeys, 74; Hemming, El Dorado, 118–19.

28 “Had it not been for the thickness of my clothes” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 214.

29 Sparked by their captain’s rallying cries Cohen, Journeys, 74; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 58; George Millar, A Crossbowman’s Story (New York, 1955), 284.

30 “They are very robust” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 214; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 434; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 59; Chapman, Golden Dream, 165; Smith, Explorers, 73; Hemming, El Dorado, 119; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 32; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 283; Bernard, Exploration, 84.

31 the Amazons “fought so courageously” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 214. Also in Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 59; Chapman, Golden Dream, 165; Smith, Explorers, 73; Bernard, Exploration, 81–83.

32 “for these we actually saw” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 214.

33 Orellana ordered a seized Indian trumpeter … down this magical waterway Ibid.; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 59; Chapman, Golden Dream, 166; Smith, Explorers, 73; Hemming, El Dorado, 121–22; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 385.

34 “The Captain told them that he did not want to” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 215.

35 The arrow had pierced one eye and exited the opposite cheek Ibid.; Cohen, Journeys, 76; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 60; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 435. The Oviedo version offers a different version of Carvajal’s report, in which Carvajal speaks of the arrow passing “through my head and sticking out two fingers’ length on the other side behind my ear and slightly above it.”

36 they managed another hasty retreat Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 216; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 435; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 60; Cohen, Journeys, 76; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 287–88.

37 terra preta or “Amazonian dark earth” See Mann, 1491, 306–10. See also Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 383–84; Roosevelt, Moundbuilders of the Amazon, 128–29; and Meggers, Amazonia, 134. Also Dr. Robert Carneiro, editorial notes on River of Darkness, September 7, 2009.

38 The open savannas they imagined filled with game, too While Carvajal described “many kinds of grass,” in actuality two main grass types predominate the central Amazon River floodplains. These are Paspalum repens and Echinochloa polystachya. The Spaniards could certainly have seen other herbaceous species that they considered to be “grass,” however. See Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 51; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 435.

39 they reached an uninhabited island Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 436; Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 217; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 60; Cohen, Journeys, 76; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 288–89.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE TRUMPETER’S TALE

1 “When they saw us” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 218. See also Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 436; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 60–61; Chapman, Golden Dream, 167; John Hemming, Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians (New York, 1978), 194.

2 “greatest of all riverbank chiefdoms, the Tapajos” Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 33.

3 It was the twenty-fifth of June, 1542 Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 436; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 61; Chapman, Golden Dream, 167.

4 “The Indian answered” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 79–80. Alternate versions of this text, all very similar in their details, can be seen in Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 219–22, and in Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 437; Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 222; Cohen, Journeys, 80; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 63.

5 “and anyone who should take it into his head” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 222.

6 “because he was an Indian of much intelligence” Ibid.

7 “Amazon in the Greek language” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 437.

8 “the islands of California” Anthony Pagden, in Cortés, Letters from Mexico, 298–300 and 502n.

9 “When we saw all those cities and villages” Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, translated with an introduction by J. M. Cohen (New York, 1963), 214.

10 “To a large extent people are only capable of perceiving” Alex Shoumatoff, In Southern Light: Trekking Through Zaire and the Amazon (New York, 1986), 19–20.

11 “It is unnecessary and probably unfair” Ibid., 19 and 23. Shoumatoff’s journey and remarkable essay about it are well worth the read. See Alex Shoumatoff, “A Reporter at Large: Amazons,” The New Yorker, March 24, 1986. Also see Hemming, Red Gold, 224–25; Cristóbal de Acuña, in Clements R. Markham, Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons, 1539, 1540, 1639 (New York, 1963), 121–22; Gerard Helferich, Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey That Changed the Way We See the World (New York, 2004), 160–61; Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, South America Called Them: Explorations of the Great Naturalists La Condamine, Humboldt, Darwin, Spruce (New York, 1945), 249–58. Another fascinating book for further inquiry and background is Abby Wettan Kleinbaum’s The War Against the Amazons (New York, 1983). For origins and antiquity, going as far back as the Scythians and the steppes of Asia Minor and the Black Sea, consult Lyn Webster Wilde, On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History (New York, 1999). Finally, fascinating and informative is the excellent chapter on the Amazons called “The Women Warriors of the Amazon: A Historical Study,” in Richard Spruce, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes (London, 1908), 456–73. Spruce cites numerous credible and dependable firsthand sources who make direct references to the Amazon women warriors and their location, many of which confirm the locations generally described by Orellana and Carvajal (consensus is north of the main Amazon, up the Trombetas and/or Nhamunda river).

12 “scholars who have tried to reconstruct the journey” Shoumatoff, In Southern Light, 18.

13 One of his hearty men, Bernard O’Brien Hemming, Red Gold, 224–25.

14 “The proofs of the existence of the province of the Amazons” Cristóbal de Acuña, in Markham, Expeditions, 121–22.

15 “Could it have been [he wondered]” Helferich, Humboldt’s Cosmos, 160–61.

16 The French scientist and naturalist La Condamine Von Hagen, South America Called Them, 249–58.

17 “I myself have seen Indian women” Spruce, Notes of a Botanist, 458.

18 “Those traditions must have had some foundation in fact” Spruce, Notes of a Botanist, 470.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: TIDES OF CHANGE AND A SWEETWATER SEA

1 “pleasantest and brightest land” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 223; Cohen, Journeys, 82; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 63; Chapman, Golden Dream, 170.

2 “There came out toward us” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 223; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 438; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 63.

3 “they came forth very gaily decked out” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 223.

4 “ruled over a great expanse” Ibid.

5 The interpreter added Ibid. Some scholars, including the well-respected J. M. Cohen, interpret this to mean that these men were almost positively Caribs, “of the kind that the Spaniards had already encountered in the Caribbean and on the shores of the mainland.” See Cohen, Journeys, 83. See also the case of Hans Staden, the German-born soldier of fortune who was shipwrecked in 1550 with Portuguese and then held captive by the Tupinamba tribe of Brazil, where he was ritually and ceremonially prepared to be eaten and witnessed much cannibalism. Hans Staden, The True History of His Captivity 1557, translated and edited by Malcolm Letts, with an introduction and notes (New York, 1929), 7–8, 92, and 99.

6 “the wound turned very black” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 438.

7 “railings on the brigantines in the manner of fortifications” Medina, Discovery, 224; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 64.

8 “like a rim … as high up as a man’s chest” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 439.

9 “tied to the oars” Medina, Discovery, 224.

10 “The flowing of the tide” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 226.

11 “With a very great clamor and outcry” Ibid.

12 The canoes impeded even the movement of the oars Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 65; Cohen, Journeys, 85. In another version the overlord is referred to by the lengthy name of Nurandaluguaburabara.

13 None of those who fell into the water The harquebusier referred to as Perucho (both Carvajal and Oviedo mention him by this first name only, which is a diminutive and informal expression for “Pedro”) might well have been a man named Pedro de Acaray, who was listed as a soldier of Gonzalo Pizarro’s at the beginning of the voyage. See Medina, Discovery, 242n; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 440.

14 “The Indian men kept uttering cries” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 440.

15 In less than twenty-four hours Soria Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 304. On poison dart frogs, see David L. Pearson and Les Beletsky, Travellers’ Wildlife Guides: Brazil—Amazon and Pantanal (Northampton, Massachusetts, 2005), 91–93. Also Dr. Robert Carneiro, editorial notes on River of Darkness, October 8, 2009. Carneiro is of the opinion that, based on their location on the Amazon at the time of being struck with poisoned arrows, “the poison that killed Orellana’s men was very likely derived from the sap of the manchineel or manzanilla tree, Hippomane mancinella. It was more commonly used by the Indians of the Caribbean coast. The Spaniards were in great dread of it, saying that someone hit by a manchineel-poisoned arrow was ‘moria rabiando,’ [pretty much what] Carvajal observed.” (Translated, “moria rabiando” means “he died raging.”)

Curare—a generic term used to describe many types of poison—was (and is) used for both warfare and hunting, but in different ways. The curare for blowgun darts is primarily employed for hunting animals and is associated with the plant vine Strychnos toxifera and its bark. Also used among some tribes (almost exclusively for hunting) is the poison from the glands of certain species of frogs that bear the apt and rather obvious name of poison dart frogs. Most notable of these is the deadly Phyllobates terribilis (terrible golden poison dart frog), whose toxicity is extraordinary: the poison from this frog is among the most lethal substances on earth, one small frog carrying sufficient poison to kill ten human beings. To harvest the frog poison, some frogs are roasted on a stick, the flames inducing the secretion of the poison. In the case of the deadliest Phyllobates terribilis, the hunter simply rubs the dart on the back of the frog and transfers the poison, and the live frog is released.

Curare was only rarely used for arrows in warfare, and when employed was more often distilled from the bark of Strychnos toxifera. In either case, the making of curare was and is an elaborate production, often attended to or orchestrated by a special tribal member called a “poison master.” The poison master harvests the bark in the forest, then pounds the bark into fibers, which is filtered as yellow liquid through palm or plantain leaves, then boiled and distilled into a black, bitter liquid. Alexander von Humboldt witnessed the process and ceremony during his time on the Amazon, amazed to discover that the toxins worked only when they came into contact with the bloodstream; one could drink the curare liquid (indeed, the poison master tasted it as he added water throughout the distillation process, and it was also drunk as a palliative, for stomachaches) with no harmful effects. For this description, see Alexander von Humboldt, Views of Nature: Or, Contemplations on the Sublime Phenomena of Creation, with Scientific Illustrations, translated by E. C. Otte and Henry G. Bohn (London, 1850), 151–52. Also described in Helferich, Humboldt’s Cosmos, 170–71.

16 This line of flat-topped hills Wood, Conquistadors, 224.

17 The land here was savanna Spruce, Notes of a Botanist, 457.

18 “We struck out among islands” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 441; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 310–11.

19 “flesh roasted on barbecues” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 442; Cohen, Journeys, 86. On the practice of cannibalism among the various Carib tribes, see also Oviedo, Natural History of the West Indies, 32–33. He says, “The bow-using Caribs … and most of those who live along that coast, eat human flesh. They do not take slaves, nor are they friendly to their enemies or foreigners. They eat all the men that they kill and use the women they capture, and the children that they bear—if any Carib should couple with them—are also eaten. The boys that they take from foreigners are castrated, fattened, and eaten.” For initial (earliest) contact with the Carib people and their cannibalism practices, see Irving Rouse, The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus (New Haven and London, 1992), 22–23. According to Rouse and others, the word “cannibal” is derived from a corruption of the Spanish word caribal, which was used to describe the practice by Island-Carib warriors of biting the flesh from their enemies in order to consume and garner their opponents’ powers. See also Hans Staden, True History of His Captivity.

20 “with the thread and brass sheath” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 441–42.

21 “A thing well worth seeing” Ibid. See also Silverman and Isbell, Handbook of South American Archaeology, 350–55, and Roosevelt, Moundbuilders, 30–51.

22 “make a very good showing” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 442; Silverman and Isbell, Handbook of South American Archaeology, 352–53; Roosevelt, Moundbuilders, 80–85. Roosevelt’s estimate of “tens of thousands of square miles in size” is the most ambitious among scholars sizing such chiefdoms. For a fascinating argument that contests some of her claims, see Robert Carneiro, “The History of Ecological Interpretations of Amazonia: Does Roosevelt Have It Right?” in Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia, edited by Leslie E. Sponsel (Tucson, 1995), 45–70.

23 “Marajoara culture was one of the outstanding nonliterate complex societies of the world” Roosevelt, Moundbuilders, 1.

24 “territories tens of thousands of square kilometers in size” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 282. See also Roosevelt, Moundbuilders, 1–7, and Mann, 1491, 288–300.

25 “until there remained only four finger widths” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 442; Cohen, Journeys, 86; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 312.

26 “Here we saw ourselves” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 229.

27 The Spaniards loaded what foodstuffs Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 442–43; Cohen, Journeys, 87; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 314–15; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 66–67; Chapman, Golden Dream, 170–71.

28 “We ate maize in rations counted out by grains” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 230.

29 “had been dead for only a short time” Ibid.

30 They consumed every ounce of it, entrails and all Cohen, Journeys, 88; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 443; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 67; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 317.

31 “toiled with no little amount of endeavor” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 230.

32 so on about July 25 This date is approximate. Carvajal (and Oviedo) say that they departed from “Starvation Island” on August 8, and most sources say that they had been there for two weeks.

33 Anticipating the very high likelihood of taking on water Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 318; Wood, Conquistadors, 225.

34 “for we did not eat anything” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 231; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 444; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 68; Wood, Conquistadors, 225; Chapman, Golden Dream, 171; Smith, Explorers, 76.

35 Couple all this with the very real fact A fascinating study on starvation is summarized and used to compare the test subjects to the crew members of the whaleship Essex in Nathaniel Philbrick’s excellent book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (New York, 2000), 158–59 and 166–67.

36 “What grieved us most” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 444.

37 As they zigzagged … without food Pearson and Beletsky, Travellers’ Wildlife Guides: Brazil, 314–19; Medina, Discovery, 232; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 68; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 320; Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 444.

38 But to the Spaniards’ great relief Cohen, Journeys, 87; Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 232; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 68.

39 “not far away from there” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 445; Pohl and Robinson, Aztecs and Conquistadors, 40–41.

40 “In this manner we got ready to navigate by sea” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 232; Cohen, Journeys, 89; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 68–69; Chapman, Golden Dream, 172; Smith, Explorers, 76–77; Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 322.

41 “I am telling the truth” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 430.

42 What Orellana would not have known For locations and early descriptions of the Pearl Islands, see Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, edited and translated by Nigel Griffin with an introduction by Anthony Pagden (New York, 1992), 86–94.

43 Most fortunate, though Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 28–29.

44 “had been navigating along the most dangerous and roughest coast” Oviedo, in Medina, Discovery, 447.

45 “When we found ourselves within it” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 233; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 69; Cohen, Journeys, 89; Morison, European Discovery of America, 144–57.

46 After a week of constant struggle … cracked and bleeding Millar, Crossbowman’s Story, 335.

47 “something more than a journey” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 226. Another version of this quote appears in Hemming, El Dorado, 123, in which the journey is described as “something more than a shipwreck, more a miraculous event.”

48 “So great was the joy” Carvajal, in Medina, Discovery, 234.

49 Only three had been killed in battle Smith, Explorers, 82; Cohen, Journeys, 90. Gonzalo Pizarro, in his return expedition to Quito, lost about ten times as many men.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE HOMEWARD REACH

1 Father Carvajal also discovered Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 378–79; Medina, Discovery, 16; Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 205–6.

2 “I, Brother Gasper de Carvajal” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 235.

3 Nearly all of these men eventually sailed Ibid., 124; Cohen, Journeys, 91; Smith, Explorers, 82.

4 Maldonado, a driven and ambitious conquistador … a trusted leader and fearless soldier Medina, Discovery, 121 and 125; Cohen, Journeys, 91; Hemming, El Dorado, 92; Bernard, Exploration, 97.

5 “Item, whether they knew that” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 92; Medina, Discovery, 87 and 269; Bernard, Exploration, 97–98.

6 His responsibilities in Hispaniola Oviedo, Natural History of the West Indies, ix–xvii. Oviedo is credited, among many other early observations, with being the first European to describe in detail the pineapple, the hammock, and tobacco.

7 “letters written in August, 1542” H.C. Heaton, in Medina, Discovery, 384.

8 The court historian Cohen, Journeys, 93.

9 “other hidalgos and commoners” Heaton, in Medina, Discovery, 383–84. Also Medina, Discovery, 27–28 and 28n.

10 “one of the greatest things that have happened to men” Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias, vol. 4, 384.

11 Oviedo deemed the discovery of the world’s largest river Medina, Discovery, 27.

12 Treaty of Tordesillas Henry Kamen, Spain’s Road to Empire (London, 2002), xvi, 42, and 199; J. H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire (New York, 1974), 47; C. H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947), 9n7, 17, and 98; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 18–19.

13 “acquainting himself in very great detail” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 125; also Orellana’s Petition and Opinions of the Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 323. See also Bernard, Exploration, 97; Cohen, Journeys, 93–94.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE LAST STAND OF THE LAST PIZARRO

1 “[displayed] toward the whole expeditionary force” Gonzalo Pizarro, letter to the king, September 3, 1542, in Medina, Discovery, 248.

2 “Orellana had gone off and become a rebel” Ibid., 249.

3 “previous royal concession” Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 16.

4 “return to his estates” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 259.

5 Gonzalo Pizarro had been dismissed Ibid. Also Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 184–85 and 188; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 900; Philip Ainsworth Means, Fall of the Inca Empire and the Spanish Rule in Peru: 1530–1780 (New York and London, 1932), 82.

6 By 1542 he had been back to Spain Bartolomé de Las Casas, History of the Indies, translated and edited by Andrée Collard (New York, Evanston, and London, 1971), ix–xxvi; Haring, Spanish Empire, 11–14. Also Hemming, El Dorado, 138–39. For Las Casas and the New Laws, see also Vega, Royal Commentaries, 935–39. An interesting analysis of the man and his thinking is also Anthony Pagden, The Fall of Natural Man (Cambridge, London, and New York, 1982).

7 “branding of Indians” Haring, Spanish Empire, 56. On the practice of branding prisoners as slaves, see Levy, Conquistador, 208. See also William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico (New York, 2001), 634.

8 If carried out, the New Laws Haring, Spanish Empire, 56–57; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 262–63; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 82–86. For a full analysis and explanation of the complicated encomienda system, see Lesley Byrd Simpson, The Encomienda System in New Spain: Forced Native Labor in the Spanish Colonies, 1492–1550 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1929) and James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560: A Colonial Society (Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1968), 11–33.

9 “[Spain wishes] to enjoy what we sweated for” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 350. Also in Sarah de Laredo, editor, From Panama to Peru: The Conquest of Peru by the Pizarros, the Rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Pacification by La Gasca (London, 1925), 328.

10 “Anyone who spoke favorably of Gonzalo Pizarro” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 267; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 89.

11 It was, in effect, a declaration of war Cieza de León, The War of Quito by Pedro de Cieza de León and Inca Documents, translated and edited by Clements R. Markham (London, 1913), 90–91.

12 “See here,” he railed, “I am to be Governor” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 350; also in Laredo, From Panama to Peru, 416–18.

13 “set astride mules” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 271; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 90.

14 Clearly Gonzalo had no scruples Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1009.

15 “because they were skilled” Ibid., 1053.

16 “which was stuck on a pike” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 275; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1055.

17 By late January 1546 Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1056–57; Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 243; Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 267–68; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 427–33; Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, 127.

18 In a drunken and raucous postvictory celebration Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 437; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 91; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 275–76.

19 “A procession was formed” Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 434–35.

20 The vein was so rich Ibid., 436, 436n, and 450; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1068; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 291.

21 his title of President of the Royal Audience of Lima carried with it unprecedented powers Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1085–86; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 446; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 283; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 93; Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 270.

22 “If this is the sort of governor” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 449.

23 “new conquests … and future discoveries” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1095.

24 He ended by appealing to Pizarro’s honor Ibid., 1094–96; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 94; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 286; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 451.

25 “If but ten only remain true to me” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 463.

26 “on the side of the heaviest artillery” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 295.

27 By the end of the day … inhospitable place Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 471; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 94; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 295–99; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1139–48.

28 “Insignificant as I am” Quoted in Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 95; also quoted in Birney, Brothers of Doom, 301 and 301n.

29 “an exquisite place” Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 96.

30 “coat of mail” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1193; also quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 351; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 307.

31 Almost instantly … devoid of a worthy fighting force Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 486–87; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 96; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 308; MacQuarrie, Last Days, 351.

32 “What shall we do, my brother?” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1193.

33 “Better to die like Christians” Ibid. Also in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 488; Clements R. Markham, History of Peru (New York, 1968), 132.

34 “a military cloak of yellow velvet” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 495.

35 “do his duty with a steady hand” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 496.

36 “[It was] hung on the royal pillory” Quoted in Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275.

37 “the worst march ever in the Indies” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 215.

38 “the worst traitor that ever lived” Ibid., 226.

39 “Here dwelled the traitor and rebel Gonzalo Pizarro” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 352. Also in Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 497. The death and demise of Gonzalo Pizarro also in Cieza de León, Discovery, 13. See also Markham, History of Peru, 133.

CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE EXPEDITION TO NEW ANDALUSIA— RETURN TO THE AMAZON

1 Gonzalo’s letter, written in September 1542 Cohen, Journeys, 95; Medina, Discovery, 128.

2 His tale, his descriptions of the people Lorimer, editor, Sir Walter Raleigh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 45.

3 “performing many services for the King” Medina, Discovery, 126 and 126n. Medina, in this note, suggests that Orellana may even have taken some part in the latter stages of the conquest of Mexico.

4 “I beseech Your Majesty” From Orellana’s Petition to Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 126 and 321.

5 “some three or four years earlier” Opinions of the Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 127 and 323.

6 “It also seems quite likely to us” Ibid.; also in Cohen, Journeys, 96.

7 “According to the said account” Opinions of the Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 128–29 and 323–24.

8 Prince Philip on February 14, 1544, signed into law Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 77; Cohen, Journeys, 96; Chapman, Golden Dream, 175; Smith, Explorers, 84.

9 “the regions that stretched towards the south” Medina, in Discovery, 129 and 328–34; Cohen, Journeys, 96.

10 “a sufficiently large number and force” Articles of Agreement, Valladolid, February 13, 1544, in Medina, Discovery, 329.

11 “so that there may be avoided” Ibid., 330.

12 “at your own expense” Ibid., 329.

13 To hamper matters further Bernard, Exploration, 99.

14 “this man talks less intelligently” Orellana, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 131n.

15 He had the power of final oversight Bernard, Exploration, 99; Cohen, Journeys, 100; Medina, Discovery, 132; Smith, Explorers, 84.

16 “a worm within our midst” Bernard, Exploration, 99; Medina, Discovery, 133; Cohen, Journeys, 101.

17 Merchants selling gear and rigging Bernard, Exploration, 99. Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 133. Also quoted in Bernard, Exploration, 101.

18 “secret and sly factions” Bernard, Exploration, 101; Medina, Discovery, 136.

19 “The Adelantado has married” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 137; also quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 103. See also Bernard, Exploration, 102.

20 The inspectors noted the lack of rigging Cohen, Journeys, 106; Medina, Discovery, 141.

21 “as thoroughly dismantled” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 106. See also Bernard, Exploration, 102.

22 Orellana did … shepherds seriously wounded Medina, Discovery, 144; Cohen, Journeys, 107.

23 His stop at the Cape Verde Islands … to set sail for the coast of Brazil Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 78.

24 “seventy-seven colonists, eleven horses” Quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 175. Also in Bernard, Exploration, 103, and Smith, Explorers, 87.

25 “And amidst this hardship” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 147–48n.

26 “We went and reconnoitered the shoals” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 359. From Record of the Statement of Francisco de Guzmán, One of Those Who Went Away with the Adelantado Orellana.

27 The men also pointed out Ibid.

28 Still, Orellana stopped, figuring Ibid. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 176; Smith, Explorers, 87; Cohen, Journeys, 110; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 79; Bernard, Exploration, 103.

29 “country so poor that little food was to be had in it” Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 359.

30 “Their efforts were fruitless” Medina, Discovery, 148. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 176; Smith, Explorers, 87–88.

31 He left behind at the island camp Medina, Discovery, 149–50; Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 360; Cohen, Journeys, 111.

32 Juan Griego told the others From Juan Griego, in Medina, Discovery, 149n and 369–74; Cohen, Journeys, 111; Smith, Explorers, 88; Chapman, Golden Dream, 176. There are two distinct and contradictory versions of what happened after Orellana returned to the shipwreck at this point. One account is given by Francisco de Guzmán and the other by Juan Griego, both of whom survived the ordeal and later reported officially on it. According to Guzmán, on Orellana’s return to the shipwreck camp, the thirty or so men he had left were still there building their boat, but he left them again, saying that he “felt ill” and that he “wanted to go back again to look for the branch of the river and go up as far as the point of San Juan” (St. John, the realm of the Amazons). According to Juan Griego’s account, on their return from seeking the main branch of the Amazon, they failed to find the others they had left behind. Scholars are divided on which of the two versions is the more reliable, but we do know that the men did in fact construct a boat and sail away to safety, for a number of them survived.

33 “He went off again saying that he was ill” Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 360.

34 The Indian guides led them well upriver Ibid.

35 “because they considered the country to be a good one” Ibid., 361.

36 “[She] told us that her husband had not succeeded” Ibid.

37 He died, she said in a whisper, “from grief” Ibid.

EPILOGUE

1 “Because of these impious and ignominious deeds” Quoted in Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, xxviii.

2 Such persuasive rhetoric Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, xiii–xli; Las Casas, History of the Indies, xiv; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 33–34; Hemming, El Dorado, 138–39; Wood, Conquistadors, 268–71. For an excellent, heady, and philosophical analysis of this debate, see Pagden, Fall of Natural Man, 109–45.

3 Their journey of migration had consumed ten years Cieza de León, The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de León, First Part of His Chronicle of Peru, translated and edited with notes and an introduction by Clements R. Markham (New York, 1964), 281 and 281n. Also in William Bollaert, translated from Fray Pedro Simón’s “Sixth Historical Notice of the Conquest of Terre Firme,” with an introduction by Clements R. Markham, The Expedition of Pedro de Ursúa and Lope de Aguirre in Search of El Dorado and Omagua in 1560–1 (New York, 1961), xxviii–xxix.

4 “They emphasized the variety and multitude of the tribes” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 35. Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 141. See also Stephen Minta, Aguirre: The Re-Creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South America (London, 1993), 8–9. Also Chapman, Golden Dream, 204.

5 Those enticing descriptions Bandelier, Gilded Man, 90–91; Hemming, El Dorado, 141; Goodman, Explorers of South America, 71; John Silver, “The Myth of El Dorado,” History Workshop No. 34, Latin American History (Autumn 1992), 1–15.

6 Ursúa’s personal transport barge Minta, Aguirre, 61.

7 in official calculations of its length Most serious scientific sources measure the Amazon from its headwaters on the Ucayali in Peru. In 2001 the National Geographic Society accepted a measurement put forth by a Polish expedition, which gave the number of 4,650 miles. See Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 23 and 99.

8 On New Year’s Day 1561 Bollaert, Expedition, 136–37; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 96–97; Cohen, Journeys, 146; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 38; Hemming, El Dorado, 142.

9 Aguirre defiantly inscribed “Lope de Aguirre: TRAITOR” Bandelier, Gilded Man, 97; Cohen, Journeys, 150.

10 Before witnesses … throughout the camp Cohen, Journeys, 159; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 100; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

11 “gentlemen or persons of quality” Richard Hakluyt, quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

12 “Men of the Amazon,” and himself “the Wrath of God” Cohen, Journeys, 164; Chapman, Golden Dream, 230–32; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

13 Aguirre and his horsehide-covered crews arrived on the island of Margarita Smith, Explorers, 118–20; Chapman, Golden Dream, 235–39.

14 “This river has a course of over two thousand leagues” Aguirre, quoted in Smith, Explorers, 134. Also quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 254.A slightly different translation of this passage is found in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 40, and Hemming, El Dorado, 144.

15 They beheaded the traitor Bollaert, Expedition, 226–27; Chapman, Golden Dream, 260–61; Cohen, Journeys, 196–97; Smith, Explorers, 131–32; Minta, Aguirre, 185–86.

16 “most appalling in the annals of Spanish enterprise” Clements R. Markham, in Bollaert, Expedition, i; Markham, quoted in Smith, Explorers, 132.

17 By 1595, using his significant powers of rhetoric Raleigh, Discoverie, translated and edited by Neil L. Whitehead, 71–75; Chapman, Golden Dream, 315 and 337. Raleigh’s expedition to Guiana is covered in detail in Raleigh Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York, 2002), 215–50.

18 “They say that once this lake is crossed” Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 153. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 279–306, on the journeys of Antonio de Berrio.

19 “to lie in the rain and weather” Raleigh, Discoverie, 135. Also Raleigh, quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 321.

20 “I know all the earth doth not yield” Raleigh, quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 167.

21 “We passed the most beautiful country” Raleigh, Discoverie, 163. Quoted also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 324. See also Raleigh, quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 168.

22 “There was nothing whereof I was more curious” Raleigh, Discoverie, 170–71 and 170–71n.

23 The curious villagers laid out a feast Ibid., 172.

24 “The birds towards the evening” Ibid., 176.

25 These would prove impassable Ibid. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 328, and Hemming, El Dorado, 170. 247 “most of the gold” Raleigh, Discoverie, 185. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 331.

26 “fear not, but strike home” Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 193. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 386. The details surrounding Raleigh’s imprisonment, his failed return to Guiana, and his execution are covered at great length in Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh, 371–553.

27 once sustained tremendous numbers of people Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 287–88. Here Hemming concisely summarizes and weighs in on the controversial “Meggers-Roosevelt” debate. He suggests an estimate, at the height of the Amazon Basin chiefdom populations, of between 4 and 5 million inhabitants spanning the entire region, with the densest populations in the “chiefdoms of the great rivers and surrounding savannahs,” which is precisely what Orellana saw and Carvajal recorded. See also Mann, 1491, 310. Woods McCann, of the New School, suggests that based on pottery findings in the lower Tapajos drainage alone, “you’d be talking about something capable of supporting about 200,000 to 400,000 people.” This would make it at the time, according to Charles Mann, “one of the most densely populated places in the world.” For a concise and cogent theory of the definition of and origins/development of chiefdoms, see Robert L. Carneiro, The Muse of History and the Science of Culture (New York, 2000), 182–86.