Safe Return Doubtful

Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage through the Amazon

Levy’s books are exciting and informative to read. They read like fiction. If I compare him to someone like Harry Thompson (who sadly died so young) in his book This Thing of Darknes (concerning Fitzroy’s voyages including with Charles Darwin), which is described as fiction, though ninety per cent factual, I actually don’t think there is very much difference. Levy takes liberties, the finer details of Orellana’s incredible voyage must be guessed at. He frequently refers to the Friar who travelled with him and chronicled to voyage, but there must be gaps.
I hastily add that I have no issue with that at all. It is why his books work so well.

Francisco Orellana’s incredible voyage down the Amazon was accidentally, we learn early in the piece. He came to South America as second-in-command of an expedition led by Gonzalo Pizarro, one of the famous, swashbuckling Pizarro brothers, in pursuit of El Dorado in 1541, searching in particular for gold and cinnamon in the unknown jungles east of the Andes. The mouth of the Amazon had been discovered by Columbus in 1500 but no one had descended the river.
These were two arrogant Spaniards determined to let nothing stop them in following Cortés to go down in history as one of the great conquistadores. But after only a few months they had to split up for survival, after Pizarro had the idea to build a boat. Orellana took the boat with a crew of 60, and Pizarro followed, slowly, of foot.
It’s an astonishing adventure story as they encounter the dangers of the jungle and rainforest, starvation, and local riverside populations both ferocious and friendly.