SURVIVING the Amazon: How the First Conquistadors Survived the DEADLY River of Darkness

In late 1541, Francisco de Orellana and 57 conquistadors undertook the first documented voyage of Europeans down the Amazon River. Starting their expedition west from Quito, the group had to travel the entire length of the river to its mouth in order to escape the jungle with their lives. Brother Gaspar de Carvajal will recount this experience. He writes about famine, attacks, huge cities, poisoned arrows, cannibals and the fight against the legendary Amazonian women. Nearly 100 years later, the Portuguese would travel the river on their own adventure, but their tales do not speak of the same glory as Carvajal. The jungle they pass through is largely uninhabited. So, was the brother's description a lie or is there another explanation?

This episode is the first part of a multi-part series about the Amazon jungle. Here we will tell the story of Carvajal. In future episodes, we'll look at the evidence behind the legend and examine its claims.

Resources

The River of Darkness by Buddy Levy (book)

The discovery of the Amazon: according to the story of Brother Gaspar De Carvajal and other documents (Book)

Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famosa río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana ("Story of the recent discovery of the famous Great River which was discovered by great luck by Captain Francisco de Orellana/") SPANISH VERSION https https ://blogs.elpais.com/papeles-perdidos/pdf/gaspardecarvajal.pdf

DISCOVERING THE AMAZONIA https://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/uncovering-amazonia/

Francisco de Orellana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_Orellana

Gaspar de Carvajal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspar_de_Carvajal

The Amazon jungle was once home to millions more people than previously thought
By Erin Blakemore
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/amazon-jungle-ancient-population-satellite-computer-model

Archaeologists discover vast network of Amazonian villages arranged like the cosmos
By Laura Geggel published on December 9, 2020
https://www.livescience.com/clock-face-shape-villages-amazon-rainforest.html

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