Francisco De Orellana - the First Amazon River Explorer

Francisco de Orellana was a Spanish explorer andA Spanish expedition in 1617 remarked on the extent
conquistador. He may have been a relative ofand high quality of a network of raised causeways
Francisco Pizarro, the conquistador of Peru. Like hisconnecting villages in the Amazon together. These
Pizarro relatives, Orellana was borncauseways can still be seen as straight lines cutting
in Trujillo, Estremadura. He reached the New Worldacross the savannah. Alongside them run canals, the
as a teenage boy and participated in the Pizarroresult of their construction. This canal network could
conquest of Peru, where he lost an eye in battle. Hehave sustained hundreds of thousands of people, and
was one of Gonzalo Pizarro’s lieutenants during hisarchaeologists believe that this area was home to a
1541 mission across the Andes Mountains eastsociety that had totally mastered its environment.
of Quito into the heart of South America in questDuring his voyage, Orellana also described
of El Dorado and the Country of Cinnamon.encountering a tribe of women very white and tall and
They faced tremendous challenges overcoming thedoing as much fighting as 10 men. These warrior
Andes, leaving from Quito, when they finally arrived atwomen were very skilled with bows and arrows, and
the NapoRiver, one of the Amazon river´s tributariestheir queen, Conori, was said to have great treasures.
that lead to the Amazon basin lowlands.  TheyTheir formidable strength brought to mind the
faced Indian attacks and captured many, who underAmazons of Greek mythology, and Orellana’s tales
duress kept confessing to there being a land of goldof these female warriors gave the river and the region
and nutmeg downriver.  After weeks of hardshipits name.
and with their food reserves running low (by this timeOrellana’s own name remains a bit stained owing
they had eaten their horses and dogs), Orellana wasto the suspicion that he abandoned Pizarro in a
ordered by expedition leader Pizarro to sail downriverdesperate situation. However, his men testified and he
in search of food and signs of treasure and thenwas found innocent. When he returned to Spain,
return.Orellana sought and obtained a dispensation to explore
Orellana was chosen because he knew many nativeand rule New Andalusia, meaning roughly the land
languages, and could communicate with the Indians andsouth of the great river. He sailed from Sanlúcar on
get help. But he and his men didn’t find any villagesMay 11, 1545, with an inadequately outfitted fleet and
while navigating the Napo River. Instead, theyaccompanied by his wife, Ana de Ayala, whom he had
suffered so much hunger they ate their own shoes.married in Spain. 
He descended the stream to its junction with theAfter being appointed governor of New Andalusia, he
Amazon River, in present-day northeast Peru; insteadand his men arrived at the Amazon river delta, built a
of returning, as he had promised Gonzalo Pizarro, heriverboat and explored 500 km of the region. They
proceeded down the river to the Atlantic Ocean.faced many hardships and of the 300 men he had
Orellana managed to navigate the length of thetaken with him fromSpain only 44 were rescued at
Amazon in one of the most surprisingly successfulsea by another Spanish fleet. Orellana was one of
expeditions in known history, arriving at the river’sthe casualties – he died in November 1546.
mouth on August 24, 1542.  He then managed toThe Amazon is the world’s second-longest river
follow sea current up the coast of South America,at 3980 miles. Its collects water from 40 percent of
finally reaching the Caribbean and Isla Margaritathe continent, in the form of thousands of tributaries,
in Venezuela, from where he was takenmany of which are more than 1000 miles long. As
to Spain to meet the king and tell of his amazingwith the Nile, the people who lived in the Amazon in
journey.  He is known as the first European toancient times used the river for agriculture and
descend the Amazon river.transportation.
Chaplain of the expedition, Gaspar de Carvajal, wroteThere is now an
a diary of their voyage, which provides interesting, ifinland province of Ecuador named Orellana, the
not always accurate, descriptions of what thecapital of which is Puerto Francisco de Orellana. The
Amazon was like before Europeans arrived.  Heprovince is named after Orellana, who is said to have
describes fertile croplands and turtle farms in the heartsailed from somewhere near the town to the Atlantic
of the Amazon Basin. Long thought to beOcean. He did this trip several times looking for El
exaggerations, attitudes to Orellana’s claims areDorado and a rumored nutmeg forest, nutmeg at the
beginning to change. His description of continuoustime being a very expensive spice.
riverside human settlements are slowly being met byOrellana, fanatical as he was with finding gold, was
the archeological record, showing that the Amazon isknown as the “Gilded Man.” He claimed to
a place that can sustain large human agglomerations,have seen the glitteringEl Dorado, stories of which still
as long as the appropriate technology for sustainabilityreverberate through the archaeological community, and
exists. while it is perhaps easier to believe that Orellana was
He may have well led the first party of Europeansa fraud, there are still those who look for remains of
through a greatly advanced civilization that thrived inthe past that might confirm that the legendary city did
the Amazon for centuries – a civilization whoseexist.
existence was thought to be impossible. The legend of El Dorado apparently originated in a
The excavation of ruins and even fragments of thetradition of the Chibcha people of Colombia who each
language of Amazonians with words for crops theyyear selected a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which
were supposedly unable to farm suggests that therehe then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake,
were complex agricultural practices in place thousandscasting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters
of years ago.at the same time. This custom had evidently vanished
Archaeologists have found that these Amazonianlong before the coming of the conquistadors, but the
farmers apparently developed raised fields overtales lived on and grew into a legend of a land of gold
half-mile long with irrigation canals in between.and plenty.
Somehow they found a method to enrich the soil withOrellana’s exploration also produced an international
a microorganism that creates a dark, loamy stratumissue between Spain and Portugal because,
with potting-soil like qualities. Up to 10% ofaccording to the Treaty of Tordesilhas, the delta of the
the Amazon Basin has been terra-formed in thisAmazon should be ruled byPortugal. It would only be
manner by the ancients – an area the sizeresolved a century later with the exploration of Pedro
of France.de Teixeira.