Francisco de Orellana [earliest known European explorer of the Amazon]

Encyclopedia Britannica ^ | Accessed 7 July 2025 | Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

[SunkenCiv]

After participating with Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru in 1535, Orellana moved to Guayaquil and was named governor of that area in 1538. When Pizarro's half brother, Gonzalo, prepared an expedition to explore the regions east of Quito, Orellana was appointed his lieutenant. In April 1541 he was sent ahead of the main party to seek provisions, taking a brigantine with 50 soldiers. He reached the junction of the Napo and Marañón rivers, where his group persuaded him of the impossibility of returning to Pizarro. Instead, he entered upon an exploration of the Amazon system. Drifting with the current, he reached the mouth of the river in August 1542. Proceeding to Trinidad, he finally returned to Spain, where he told of hoards of gold and cinnamon and of encounters with tribes led by women resembling the Amazons of Greek mythology -- a comparison that is presumed to have led him to name the river the Amazon.

Orellana sought the right to explore and exploit the lands that he had discovered. Because the Spanish crown was involved in controversy with Portugal over the ownership of the area, it could provide him with only some assistance but no official support. His return to the Amazon proved a disaster. Ships and men were lost on the passage to America, and Orellana's vessel capsized near the mouth of the great river and he drowned.

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ageofsail; franciscodeorellana; franciscopizarro; godsgravesglyphs; portugal; southamerica; spain; theamazon

[SunkenCiv]

 

Francisco de Orellana's 1541 expedition down the Amazon River, American engraving, 1848.

[SunkenCiv]

[marktwain]

I read most of his journal descending the Amazon for the first time. Extreme danger, lots of very fearsome natives on the last half of the river.

[PUGACHEV]

Orellana would stop at various villages along the river to resupply and refit. He was a linguistic genius and kept notes about the various dialects he encountered, slowly building up a general fluency to the point where he could speak with and understand the people he encountered. At one especially friendly village he set up a forge to convert horseshoes into nails and built a second boat from local timber. This took several months, and as news of his arrival spread far inland, dozens of other tribes came to visit him. Orellana describes one especially distinctive group as being tall and blond. It was more than twenty years before any other Spaniards went down the Amazon and they encountered very few people or settlements, unlike what Orellana saw. This convinced people at the time that he had just made everything up, but it appears now that the Amazon was well settled at the time of his visit, but he may have brought European diseases with him that devastated countless civilizations.

[EyeInThePyramid]

Buddy Levy wrote an excellent book on Orellana’s expedition titled “River of Darkness”.

[Arkady]

This post was a terrible summmary. Buddy Levy! River of Darkness! Unforgettable story of one of the greatest explorations of discovery ever, and no one knows about it.

[onona]

They (Explorers) all had incredible courage. Or incredible faith. Or more likely both. Plus a tad bit of hubris.

They were likely called crazy at one point.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[Verginius Rufus]

This was almost 20 years earlier than the trip down the Amazon depicted in the movie Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, I was trying to remember KK’s role, and found the other one about the Amazon that he did with Herzog. KK was a fullbore nutjob, btw.

[SunkenCiv]

BTW, all, I’ve got a couple more S American articles to post, but will do this tomorrow.