River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrilling account of one of historys greatest adventures of discovery. With cinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail here is the true story of a legendary sixteenth-century explorer and his death-defying navigation of the Amazonriver of darkness pathway to gold. In 1541 the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his well-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito in search of La Canela South Americas rumored Land of Cinnamon and the fabled El Dorado the golden man. Driving an enormous retinue of mercenaries enslaved natives horses hunting dogs and other animals across the Andes they watched their proud expedition begin to disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarish jungle following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth their numbers diminishing daily through disease starvation and Indian attacks Pizarro and Orellana made a fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returned home barefoot and in rags Orellana and fifty-seven men in a few fragile craft continued downriver into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon serenaded by native war drums and the eerie cries of exotic predators. Theirs would be the greater glory. Interweaving eyewitness accounts of the quest with newly uncovered details Buddy Levy reconstructs the seminal journey that has electrified adventurers ever since as Orellana became the first European to navigate and explore the entire length of the worlds largest river. Levy gives a long-overdue account of the native populationssome peaceful and welcoming offering sustenance and life-saving guidance others ferociously hostile subjecting the invaders to gauntlets of unremitting attack and intimations of terrifying rituals. And here is the Amazon itself a powerful presence whose every twist and turn held the promise of new wonders both natural and man-made as well as the ever-present risk of deatha river that would hold Orellana in its irresistible embrace to the end of his life. Overflowing with violence and beauty nobility and tragedy River of Darkness is both riveting history and a breathtaking adventure that will sweep readers along on an epic voyage unlike any other.