River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage through the Amazon

A very entertaining telling of Francisco Orellana’s odyssey down the Amazon
The book is very well written. Levy sets up the book with just enough backstory on Gonzalo Pizzaro, Francisco Orellana, and the conquistadors that preceded them. The telling of the grueling trek that Pizzaro and Orellana endured, together for only the initial portion, was fascinating, particularly regarding the density of the native population at the time (which, sadly, was mostly wiped out in the ensuing centuries). For whatever their faults, the grit of the conquistadors was astounding; they were far braver and resourceful than you might think possible.

Amazing Amazon Exploration
For students of history, we learn about Cortes conquering the Aztecs and Pizzaro conquering the Incas. This book explores the Spanish conquest of South America in depth. Things such as the fact that there were five Pizzaro brothers. In the end the book is really about Francisco Orellana descending the Amazon river from it’s source in the Andes in the 1500’s. Imagine crossing the Andes with an expedition of forces and animals. You get to the other side and begin descending into a rain forest with little food, few resources and numerous people to feed. The expedition had to construct bridges over cavernous chasms just to proceed. Then they had to descend the rivers feeding the Amazon proper. The expedition leader Gonzalo Pizzaro had his men build a boat from scratch. And when I say from scratch I mean they had to make their own nails! After building his boat, Pizzaro split up his force and sent his second in command to search for food. The boat, going downstream, quickly put days of distance between the main and secondary force. In the end Orellana was unable to get back up stream to help Pizzaro and it takes them some time before they are able to find a food source. Orellana was made leader of the secondary force according to Spanish law at the time. He made his way downstream and encountered numerous native populations along the way. In contrast to the bloody, brutal conquistador ways, Orellana tried diplomacy to woo the natives of the Amazon. For the most part it worked. He meet numerous native tribes and they help feed his expedition and educate him about the native South Americans. Eventually Orellana had to build a second boat to continue descending the river as it got larger and wider. The lower Amazon proves to be more difficult to deal with in terms of diplomacy and natives with poison tipped darts and arrows were a constant hazard. In the end Orellana succeeded in traversing the entire Amazon and made it to a Spanish colony in the leeward islands. And when I say he succeeded I mean the men who were still alive made it. In the end only about twenty percent of the expedition got out alive. The book is well written and exhaustively researched. It grips the reader and I really enjoyed it. I hope you will also.

History
It’s not a bad book to read. I had never heard of this person so, being a history buff, I learned something new. It’s worth the money.

Another great historical account by Buddy Levy
Outstanding on all accounts!This is my second book by Levy and once again he has far exceeded my expectations.1) His writing style is so easy and fun to read. He draws you in and you can’t put the book down.2) He writes in a very balanced way. You get to know, and like, the man Orellana. Although Levy does not white wash the problems with the Spanish colonial treatment of the Indians, he doesn’t paint them all as cruel and sadistic villains that should be erased from the pages of history. In fact you come away realizing that compared to other conquistadors, Orellana was actually quite kind and reasonable.3) He also did an incredible job of researching this book. Levy is a true historian.The only thing that might have taken away from the book was the ending. It kind of just dragged on for a while. He went into the demise of Gonzalo Pizarro. Along with a brief description of Sir Walter Raleigh’s exploration up the Orinoco. Although interesting to read I found them slightly out of place. But that criticism is so minor, don’t let that keep you from reading the book.Hit the order button and buy it now!

Well written.

The book is a factual but well written documentary story of the adventures of the early discovery voyages. Thrilling and eye opening. Makes you think about how much beauty and how many civilisations have people destroyed…

1542年，世界で初めてアマゾン河の源流から大西洋に到達したスペインの探検家（コンキスタドール），フランシスコ・オレリャーナ(Francisco Orellana)を主人公とするノンフィクション．インカ帝国を征服したことで有名なゴンサロ・ピサロの副官として，黄金の国エルドラドを求めてアマゾン流域の探検に出かけたものの，途中で止むなくピサロと別れ，アマゾン河を小舟で下って大西洋の河口に到達，さらに大西洋を北上してベネズエラのスペイン領にたどりつく．悪天候，食糧難，風土病，原住民との戦いなど数々の試練が襲いかかる行程が詳しく描かれている．ただひたすら武力で原住民を搾取，殺戮したピサロと違って，オレリャーナは巧みな語学を駆使して原住民に対する硬軟織り交ぜた交渉で危機を乗り切って行く．19世紀末のアフリカ探検にも言えることだが，現地で何度も想像を絶する悲惨な経験をしながらも，それが終わるとすぐにまた新たな探検に乗り出し，結局は現地に骨を埋める探検家は多い．オレリャーナもその1人である．この辺りの心理はよく理解できないところだが，それが探検家の探検家たる所以なのだろう．詳細である一方，ややもすれば冗長な感もあるが，充実した冒険記である．