River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon PDF
Preview River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon
BUDDY LEVY ALSO BY CONQUISTADOR: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs AMERICAN LEGEND: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett ECHOES ON RIMROCK: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge Copyright © 2011 by Buddy Levy All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Levy, Buddy. River of darkness: Francisco Orellana’s legendary voyage of death and discovery down the Amazon / Buddy Levy p. cm. eISBN: 978-0-55390810-7 1. Orellana, Francisco de, d. ca. 1546. 2. Amazon River Region— Discovery and exploration—Spanish. I. Title. E125.O6 L48 2011 2010041849 981/.01 22 Map copyright © 2011 by David Lindroth www.bantamdell.com Jacket design: Tom McKeveny Jacket illustration: color lithograph after Jean-Baptiste Debret, “Indians Using a Fallen Tree- Trunk to Cross the Rio Paraiba do Sul,” from Voyage Pittoresque et Historique au Brésil (Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris/Archives Charmet/ Bridgeman Art Library International) v3.1_r1 For my father, Buck Levy, who first took me to the river We seldom or never find any nation hath endured so many misadventures and miseries as the Spaniards have done in their Indian discoveries. Yet persisting in their enterprises, with invincible constancy, they have annexed to their kingdom so many goodly provinces, as bury the remembrance of all dangers past.… Many years have passed over some of their heads in search of not so many leagues: Yea, more than one or two have spent their labour, their wealth, and their lives, in search of a golden kingdom, without getting further notice of it than what they had at their first setting forth. —S W R , The History of the World, 1614 IR ALTER ALEIGH There is something in a tropical forest akin to the ocean in its effect on the mind. Man feels so completely his insignificance there and the vastness of nature. —H W B , The Naturalist on the River Amazons, 1892 ENRY ALTER ATES In human terms, Francisco Orellana’s is probably the most compelling narrative from the entire conquistador period, for the simple reason that this time it was the Europeans who suffered so desperately, and who needed all their powers of endurance as they battled with a savage environment. —P W , Newfound Lands ETER HITFIELD CONTENTS Cover Other Books by This Author Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph MAP PROLOGUE 1 A Confluence of Conquistadors 2 Birth of the Golden Dream 3 Into the Andes 4 El Barco and the San Pedro 5 The Split 6 The Plight of Gonzalo Pizarro 7 St. Eulalia’s Confluence—The Amazon 8 The Victoria 9 River of Darkness, Brothers of Doom 10 The Assassination of Francisco Pizarro 11 On the Maranon to the Realm of Machiparo 12 Among the Omagua 13 Big Blackwater River 14 Encountering the Amazons 15 The Trumpeter’s Tale Photo Insert 16 Tides of Change and a Sweetwater Sea 17 The Homeward Reach 18 The Last Stand of the Last Pizarro 19 The Expedition to New Andalusia— Return to the Amazon Epilogue CHRONOLOGY A NOTE ON THE TEXT AND SOURCES NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ILLUSTRATION CREDITS About the Author
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