Deluded by a legend, Francisco Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarro departed from Ecuador in 1541 in a disastrous expedition towards the Amazon Basin; they did not find any gold or lost cities but Orellana became the first person to navigate the entire Amazon River. What were they seeking?
"God"" (1972). An earlier script, penned by director Werner Herzog, also deliberately included De Orellana in the movie, but he was ultimately left out. De Orellana's role in the search for ""El Dorado"" also forms part of the plot of the film ""Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"" (2008). One of the campaigns of """" is called ""El Dorado"" and is about the quest of Francisco de Orellana and Francisco Pizarro to find ""El Dorado"", the legendary Lost City of Gold, thought to be hidden somewhere in the vast Amazon rainforest. The campaign is based on De"
"Orellana's first exploration. Francisco de Orellana Francisco de Orellana (; 1511 – November 1546) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the Amazon River, which initially was named ""Rio de Orellana."" He also founded the city of Guayaquil in what is now Ecuador. Orellana died during a second expedition on the Amazon. Born in Trujillo (various birth dates, ranging from 1490 to 1511, are still quoted by biographers), Orellana was a close friend, and possibly a relative of Francisco Pizarro, the Trujillo-born conquistador of Peru (his cousin, according to some"
"Francisco de Orellana Francisco de Orellana (; 1511 – November 1546) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the Amazon River, which initially was named ""Rio de Orellana."" He also founded the city of Guayaquil in what is now Ecuador. Orellana died during a second expedition on the Amazon. Born in Trujillo (various birth dates, ranging from 1490 to 1511, are still quoted by biographers), Orellana was a close friend, and possibly a relative of Francisco Pizarro, the Trujillo-born conquistador of Peru (his cousin, according to some historians). He traveled"
"inhospitable territory devoid of provisions. Gonzalo Pizarro ordered his second in command, Francisco de Orellana to follow the Napo River with fifty men, in order to find its mouth. The hope was that the men would be able to find provisions and bring them back in the small boat in which they went. Orellana reached the confluence of the Napo and Trinidad, but he didn't find provisions. Unable to return because of the current, he decided to continue following the river, until he reached the estuary of the Amazon in 1542. Carvajal, who was one of the survivors of the"
"and 3,000 out of 4,000 natives had died. On February 1542, they decided Orellana would continue sailing down the Napo river in search of food along with 50 men. After a brief time, Gonzalo thought the expedition was a whole failure and decided to take a route north back to Quito with 80 of the remaining men, unknowingly relinquishing the success to Orellana, who ended discovering and exploring the entire length of the Amazon River. Upon his return to Quito, Gonzalo learned that the ""Almagristas"" (as the followers of Almagro were called) had assassinated his brother Francisco Pizarro on June"
"to break off from the main group and forge ahead, then return with news of what they had found. This group utilized a brigantine to journey down the river. After failing to find the legendary city, Orellana was unable to return because of the current, and he and his men continued to follow the Napo River until he reached the estuary of the Amazon in 1542. Accompanying Orellana was Gaspar de Carvajal, who kept a journal of the group's experiences. The historic Gaspar de Carvajal (1500–1584) was a Spanish Dominican friar who had settled in Peru and dedicated himself to"
"Greek legend of the Amazons, named the river the Amazon. In one of the most improbably successful voyages in known history, Orellana managed to sail the length of the Amazon, arriving at the river's mouth on 24 August 1542. He and his party sailed along the Atlantic coast until reaching Cubagua Island, near the coast of Venezuela. The BBC documentary ""Unnatural Histories"" presents evidence that Orellana, rather than exaggerating his claims as previously thought, was correct in his observations that an advanced civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. It is believed that the civilization was later devastated"
"after the conquest, Francisco Pizzaro sent his brother, Gonzalo Pizzaro on several expeditions to explore land to the east Tahuantinsuyo. They were motivated by the Dorado and Canela myth, which was the belief that the east was rich in gold and cinnamon, an exotic spices for the Spaniards. After reaching Quito, Gonzalo Pizzaro and many of his explorers fell ill and returned to the West. Fransciso Orellana, the second in command, continued toward the Napo River and discovered the Amazon River where the ancestors of the Kichwas lived. To the native people of the Ecuadorian rain forest, the idea of"
"River and the Napo River. It is believed that he set sail from the current location of the town eventually making his way into the Amazon River seeing the ""Amazon"" or tribes in which the women also fought. Eventually Francisco de Orellana made it to the Atlantic. He made a second expedition leaving but died on the Amazon delta unable to find a way through. Puerto Francisco de Orellana Puerto Francisco de Orellana (), also known as El Coca (), is the capital of province of Orellana in eastern Ecuador. The city is located in the Amazon Rainforest at the"
"for Pizarro, finally sending back three men with a message, and started construction of a second brigantine, the ""Victoria"". Pizarro had in the meantime returned to Quito by a more northerly route, by then with only 80 men left alive. After leaving the village on the Napo, Orellana continued downstream to the Amazon. The 49 men began to build a bigger ship for river navigation. During their navigation on Napo River they were threatened constantly by the Omaguas. They reached the Negro River on 3 June 1542 and finally arrived on the Amazon River. At a longitude of about 69°W"
"hoped to find. In Quito, Gonzalo was able to recruit 220 Spaniards and 4,000 Native Americans. The second-in-command, Orellana, was sent to Guayaquil to recruit more troops and horses. Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers left Quito on February 1541, a month before Orellana, who was able to bring 23 men and several horses. In March both met in the valley of ""Zumaco"" and started their march towards the crossing of the Andes. After following the courses of the Coca and Napo rivers, the expedition began to run out of provisions. By this time about 140 of the 220 Spaniards and"
"brigantine, the ""San Pedro"", was constructed to ferry the sick and supplies. Gonzalo Pizarro ordered him to explore the Coca River and return after finding the river's end. When they arrived at the confluence with the Napo River, his men threatened to mutiny if they did not continue. On 26 December 1541 he agreed to be elected chief of the new expedition and to conquer new lands in name of the king. Orellana (with the Dominican Gaspar de Carvajal who chronicled the expedition) and 50 men set off downstream to find food. Unable to return against the current, Orellana waited"
"one of his own vessels) surreptitiously sailed out of Sanlucar with four ships and disappeared from view. He sailed first for the Canary Islands, where he spent three months trying to re-supply his ships, then another two months at the Cape Verde Islands. By then one ship had been lost, 98 men had died of sickness and 50 had deserted. A further ship was lost in mid-Atlantic, carrying with it 77 crew, 11 horses and a boat to be used on the Amazon. Orellana arrived at the Brazilian coast shortly before Christmas 1545 and proceeded 100 leagues into the Amazon"
"las Omaguas"", as being ""between the sources of the Rio Negro, of the Uaupes (Guape), and of the Jupura or Caqueta."" The Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, who was the first European to navigate the full length of the Amazon River (1541–42), reported densely populated regions running hundreds of kilometers along the river, although the people there left no lasting monuments, possibly because they used local wood as their construction material. While it is possible Orellana may have exaggerated the level of development among the Amazonians, their semi-nomadic descendants are distinguished by having a hereditary yet landless aristocracy, a historical"
"to Santafe de Bogotá. In 1540, Gonzalo Pizarro, the younger half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador who toppled the Incan Empire in Peru, was made the governor of the province of Quito in northern Ecuador. Shortly after taking lead in Quito, Gonzalo learned from many of the natives of a valley far to the east rich in both cinnamon and gold. He banded together 340 soldiers and about 4000 natives in 1541 and led them eastward down the Rio Coca and Rio Napo. Francisco de Orellana accompanied Pizarro on the expedition as his lieutenant. Gonzalo quit after many of"
"Pizarro should raise a sufficiently equipped force of 250 men, of whom 100 might be drawn from the colonies. This gave Pizarro time to leave for his native Trujillo and convince his brother Hernando Pizarro and other close friends to join him on his third expedition. Francisco de Orellana joined the group and would later discover and explore the length of the Amazon River. Two more of his brothers from his father, Juan Pizarro and Gonzalo Pizarro, and a brother from his mother, Francisco Martín de Alcántara, later decided to join him, as well as his cousin Pedro Pizarro, who"
"the Mississippi River and was the first European to sail the Gulf of Mexico and cross Texas. Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) drew the first maps of part of central and maritime Canada; Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510–1554) discovered the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River; Francisco de Orellana (1511–1546) was the first European to navigate the length of the Amazon River. Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), was the first navigator to cross the Pacific Ocean, discovering the Strait of Magellan, the Tuamotus and Mariana Islands, and achieving a nearly complete circumnavigation of the Earth, in multiple voyages, for the first time. Juan Sebastian"
"3,000 out of 4,000 natives had died. They built a boat, and in February 1542 decided that Orellana, along with 50 men, should continue sailing down the Napo in search of food for the whole party. After vainly awaiting their return Gonzalo eventually admitted that the expedition was a failure. He decided to find a more northerly route back to Quito. He arrived there, two years after his departure, with only 80 surviving companions. Orellana, who never found any large supplies of food and had been unable to return upstream to rejoin the main party, continued down the Rio Napo"
"his 1541 expedition east of Quito into the South American interior. In Quito, Gonzalo Pizarro collected a force of 220 Spaniards and 4000 natives, while Orellana, as second in command, was sent back to Guayaquil to gather troops and horses. Pizarro left Quito in February 1541 just before Orellana arrived with his 23 men and horses. Orellana hurried after the main expedition, eventually making contact with them in March. However, by the time the expedition had left the mountains, 3000 natives and 140 Spanish had either died or deserted. On reaching the River Coca (a tributary of the Napo), a"
"to the Amazon and became the first European to follow the great river all the way to its delta. The best sources for the expedition are the history of Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca (Garcilaso grew up in the household of Gonzalo Pizarro and therefore heard his story at first hand) and the narrative of Orellana's chaplain Gaspar de Carvajal, who took part in the navigation of the Amazon. The narrative in William H. Prescott's ""History of the Conquest of Peru"" is elaborated on the basis of Garcilaso. La Canela La Canela, the Valley of Cinnamon, is a legendary"
"had an interview with king Charles I. The king heard of his expeditions in lands rich in gold and silver and promised to support him. The ""Capitulación de Toledo"" authorized Pizarro to proceed with the conquest of Peru. Pizarro was then able to convince many friends and relatives to join: his brothers Hernándo Pizarro, Juan Pizarro, Gonzalo Pizarro and also Francisco de Orellana, who would later explore the Amazon River, as well as his cousin Pedro Pizarro. Pizarro's third and final expedition left Panama for Peru on 27 December 1530. With three ships and one hundred and eighty men they"
"river he descended was the Amazon or the Orinoco River, which runs more or less parallel to the Amazon further north. Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira was the first European to travel up the entire river. He arrived in Quito in 1637, and returned via the same route. From 1648 to 1652, Portuguese Brazilian ""bandeirante"" António Raposo Tavares led an expedition from São Paulo overland to the mouth of the Amazon, investigating many of its tributaries, including the Rio Negro, and covering a distance of more than . In what is currently Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, a number"
"of the Amazon River, waterway by river from Quito, Ecuador. On 28 October 1637, the Portuguese Pedro Teixeira left Belem and went to Quito: during the expedition, he placed a landmark in the confluence of the Napo and Aguarico, in the current border between Ecuador and Peru, to Portugal, and later to Brazil, getting the possession of most of the Amazon, including all of the current territory of Pará. Archaeologists divide the ancient inhabitants of prehistory Brazil into groups according to their way of life and tools: hunter-gatherers of the coast and farmers. These groups were subsequently named by European"
"Herndon headed an expedition exploring the Valley of the Amazon, a vast area uncharted by Europeans, although inhabited for thousands of years by numerous tribes of indigenous peoples. The purpose of the expedition was to ascertain the commercial resources and potential of the valley. Departing Lima, Peru, 21 May 1851, Herndon, in the company of Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon and five other men, pressed into the jungles. After crossing the Cordilleras, Gibbon separated to explore the Bolivian tributaries of the Amazon while Herndon continued to explore the main trunk. After a journey of 4,366 miles, which took him through the wilderness"
"of the mad descent of the Amazon by Lope de Aguirre. This expedition, which took place in 1561 (almost twenty years after that of Orellana), was the source of inspiration for the movie. Additionally, Carvajal is depicted as being killed by natives. However, the film included many situations and persons from the chronicle of Carvajal, which is to say, from the expedition of Orellana. Gaspar de Carvajal Gaspar de Carvajal ( 1500–1584) was a Spanish Dominican missionary to the New World, known for chronicling some of the explorations of the Amazon. De Carvajal was born in Trujillo. After entering the"
"Carvajal, who documented the expedition, where reported a conflict against indigenous women and led to the current name of the river and as a result the current name of the region and the state (Amazonas in English: Amazons), and of Pedro de Ursúa, intending to prove the previous expedition, resulted in the Spanish Kingdom dropout attempt to colonize the region. After the unification of the Iberian kingdoms, Portugal launched an expedition on the river but in reverse from Francisco de Orellana, from the mouth of the river to the place on the present-day city of Quito, capital of Ecuador, with"
"first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream ""Río Santa María del Mar Dulce"", later shortened to ""Mar Dulce"", literally, ""sweet sea"", because of its fresh water pushing out into the ocean. Another Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana, was the first European to travel from the origins of the upstream river basins, situated in the Andes, to the mouth of the river. In this journey, Orellana baptised some of the affluents of the Amazonas like Rio Negro, Napo and Jurua. The name Amazonas is taken from the native warriors that attacked this expedition, mostly women,"
"Delta. A river-going vessel was constructed, but 57 men died from hunger and the remaining seagoing vessel was driven ashore. The marooned men found refuge among friendly indigenous people on an island in the delta, while Orellana and a boat delegation set off to find food and locate the principal arm of the Amazon. On returning to the shipwreck camp, they found it deserted, the men having constructed a second boat and set out to find Orellana. The second boat eventually gave up the search and made its way along the coast to the island of Margarita near the Venezuela"
"cough. On February 12, 1542, and after a search of several months, Spanish conqueror Francisco de Orellana discovered the Amazon river, an adventure that began in the Sierra. Even though colonization had started several decades before, the city of Iquitos was founded in the 1750s. It is located between the Nanay River and the left bank of the Amazon river, which makes it an ideal starting point when traveling to surrounding regions. During Colonial times, the Jesuits and Franciscans evangelized and founded different towns. During these years, they contributed by opening travel routes and cutting down distances between indigenous groups"
"Juan de Penalosa, whom she lived with for the rest of her days in Panama. She was last heard of in 1572. The indigenous Icamiaba dominated the area close to the Amazon River. When Orellana went down the river in search of gold, descending from the Andes in 1541, the river was still called Rio Grande, Mar Dulce or Rio de Canela (""Cinnamon""), because cinnamon trees were once thought to be located there. The story of the fierce ambush launched by the Icamiabas that nearly destroyed the Spanish expedition was narrated to the king, Charles I, who, inspired by the"
"was inferred from rumors, which inspired several unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s in search of a city called Manõa on the shores of Lake Parime. Two of the most famous of these expeditions were led by Sir Walter Raleigh. In pursuit of the legend, Spanish conquistadors and numerous others searched Colombia, Venezuela, and parts of Guyana and northern Brazil for the city and its fabulous king. In the course of these explorations, much of northern South America, including the Amazon River, was mapped. By the beginning of the 19th century, most people dismissed the existence of the city as"
"towards the restoration of the Portuguese independence (which did take place in 1640). Consequently, the governor of Maranhão, Jacome Raimundo de Noronha, lost no time in commissioning an expedition under the command of Captain Pedro de Teixeira. Teixeira already had considerable experience exploring the Amazon and the Xingu River leading expeditions to expel English and Dutch traders and settlers. One of the Franciscan friars, Andres de Toledo, was dispatched to Lisbon to report his expedition to the Portuguese authorities. So Teixeira became the first European to travel up the Amazon River, reaching Quito by way of the Napo River. The"
"in the unknown Andes, a rich area with an advanced civilisation must exist. These tales bore the -not so much- legend of ""El Dorado""; the city or man of gold. The Muisca, skilled goldworkers, held a ritual in Lake Guatavita where the new ""zipa"" would cover himself in gold dust and jump from a raft into the cold waters of the high lake to the northeast of the Bogotá savanna. After a journey of almost a year, where the Spanish lost over 80% of their soldiers, the conquistadors following the Suárez River, reached the Bogotá savanna in March 1537. The"