Great rivers have usually been discovered and explored by ascending
them from the ocean to their sources; the Congo and the Amazon were
explored downward from their sources to the ocean.
Three hundred and fifty years ago, Gonzalo Pizarro, then governor of
Upper Peru, heard of a land of silver and gold, spices and precious
stones; a land where spring reigned and all tropical fruits abounded.
He determined to follow the little {12} stream which, rising in the
Andes, near Quito, flowed eastward; to explore the country, and find
the happy land. He set out with 350 Cavaliers, mounted on Spanish
horses and attended by 4000 Indian slaves.
The first part of the route was easy; the little stream soon became a
river, then broadened into the Napo; but the farther they went, the
slower and more difficult was their progress as they passed from the
open forest and the cool and invigorating breezes of the Andes into
the sultry valley of the Napo. Their way now led through forests more
dense, darker and more impenetrable than those described by Stanley,
for the valley of the Amazon is richer than the valley of the Congo.
Natives armed with poisoned arrows opposed their progress; food became
scarce, treachery was on every side, and their number gradually
diminished by death and by desertion of the slaves.
The natives told them of a greater river than the Napo which they
would find a few days' voyage farther down. This river, they said,
flowed through a more populous and richer country, where food was
abundant and gold was found in every stream. Pizarro determined to
build a bark and to send Orellano as commander to find and return with
food and succor. For this vessel, the forests furnished the timber;
the shoes of the horses were converted into nails, distilled gum was
used for pitch, and the garments of the soldiers were a substitute for
oakum. In two months, a brigantine was launched, the first European
vessel that ever floated on the waters of the Amazon. The Napo grew
broader and deeper as the little company rapidly floated down, until
it became a mile wide. Three days after they left Pizarro, they saw
before them a river, many times larger than the Napo, which the
Indians called Parana-tinega, King of Waters; but we call it the
Amazon. There was no cultivation, little food could be obtained, and
the Indians were hostile instead of friendly. What was to be done?
Behind them was the wilderness, before them the promised land. The
journey back would be difficult and dangerous; the temptation to
explore the wonderful river was too great to resist. One man alone was
faithful to Pizarro, and he was left on the bank while Orellano sailed
down the river. The wonder of the explorers daily increased as other
rivers larger than the Napo flowed into the Amazon, now on the north,
more frequently on the south. Month after month passed, the river grew
so broad that they could not see from one side to the other. {13}
Great islands were passed, channels running parallel with the main
stream larger than any river they had ever seen. Still on they went,
till after several months they reached the Atlantic Ocean. Then they
sailed north in their little boat, skirting the coast to Trinidad,
where they found a vessel which bore them to Spain. They recounted the
story of the great river; the wonderful country through which they
passed; and the rich mines of which they had heard. They told fabulous
tales of the Amazonians they had encountered, strong and masculine
women, armed with bows and arrows, living by themselves, admitting men
into their country only one month in the year, killing or sending away
the male children and training the girls to become amazons and
warriors.
Orellano was received by the Queen; his treachery was forgotten and a
new expedition was sent out under his command; but he died before
reaching the river.
Meantime, Pizarro and his followers slowly and with difficulty made
their way down the Napo, taking as many months to reach the Amazon as
Orellano had taken days. They looked in vain for their companions, but
found only the solitary man who had been left behind, scarcely alive,
and from him learned of Orellano's desertion. Further explorations
being impossible, they turned back, reached Quito two years after
their departure, their horses gone, their arms broken or rusted, the
skins of wild animals their only clothing. "The charnel house seemed
to have given up its dead, as they glided onward like a troop of
spectres." Half of the Indians had perished, and of the three hundred
and fifty cavaliers only eighty were left.
Such was the end of an expedition which for dangers and hardships,
length of duration, and constancy displayed is probably unmatched in
the annals of American discovery.