River of Darkness

by Buddy Levy

21 his title of President of the Royal Audience of Lima carried with it unprecedented powers Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1085–86; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 446; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 283; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 93; Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, 270.

  22 “If this is the sort of governor” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 449.

  23 “new conquests … and future discoveries” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1095.

  24 He ended by appealing to Pizarro’s honor Ibid., 1094–96; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 94; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 286; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 451.

  25 “If but ten only remain true to me” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 463.

  26 “on the side of the heaviest artillery” Birney, Brothers of Doom, 295.

  27 By the end of the day … inhospitable place Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 471; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 94; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 295–99; Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1139–48.

  28 “Insignificant as I am” Quoted in Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 95; also quoted in Birney, Brothers of Doom, 301 and 301n.

  29 “an exquisite place” Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 96.

  30 “coat of mail” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1193; also quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 351; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 307.

  31 Almost instantly … devoid of a worthy fighting force Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 486–87; Means, Fall of the Inca Empire, 96; Birney, Brothers of Doom, 308; MacQuarrie, Last Days, 351.

  32 “What shall we do, my brother?” Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1193.

  33 “Better to die like Christians” Ibid. Also in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 488; Clements R. Markham, History of Peru (New York, 1968), 132.

  34 “a military cloak of yellow velvet” Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 495.

  35 “do his duty with a steady hand” Quoted in Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 496.

  36 “[It was] hung on the royal pillory” Quoted in Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275.

  37 “the worst march ever in the Indies” Quoted in Wood, Conquistadors, 215.

  38 “the worst traitor that ever lived” Ibid., 226.

  39 “Here dwelled the traitor and rebel Gonzalo Pizarro” Quoted in MacQuarrie, Last Days, 352. Also in Zárate, Discovery and Conquest of Peru, 275; Prescott, Conquest of Peru, 497. The death and demise of Gonzalo Pizarro also in Cieza de León, Discovery, 13. See also Markham, History of Peru, 133.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE EXPEDITION TO NEW ANDALUSIA— RETURN TO THE AMAZON

  1 Gonzalo’s letter, written in September 1542 Cohen, Journeys, 95; Medina, Discovery, 128.

  2 His tale, his descriptions of the people Lorimer, editor, Sir Walter Raleigh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 45.

  3 “performing many services for the King” Medina, Discovery, 126 and 126n. Medina, in this note, suggests that Orellana may even have taken some part in the latter stages of the conquest of Mexico.

  4 “I beseech Your Majesty” From Orellana’s Petition to Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 126 and 321.

  5 “some three or four years earlier” Opinions of the Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 127 and 323.

  6 “It also seems quite likely to us” Ibid.; also in Cohen, Journeys, 96.

  7 “According to the said account” Opinions of the Council of the Indies, in Medina, Discovery, 128–29 and 323–24.

  8 Prince Philip on February 14, 1544, signed into law Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 77; Cohen, Journeys, 96; Chapman, Golden Dream, 175; Smith, Explorers, 84.

  9 “the regions that stretched towards the south” Medina, in Discovery, 129 and 328–34; Cohen, Journeys, 96.

  10 “a sufficiently large number and force” Articles of Agreement, Valladolid, February 13, 1544, in Medina, Discovery, 329.

  11 “so that there may be avoided” Ibid., 330.

  12 “at your own expense” Ibid., 329.

  13 To hamper matters further Bernard, Exploration, 99.

  14 “this man talks less intelligently” Orellana, quoted in Medina, Discovery, 131n.

  15 He had the power of final oversight Bernard, Exploration, 99; Cohen, Journeys, 100; Medina, Discovery, 132; Smith, Explorers, 84.

  16 “a worm within our midst” Bernard, Exploration, 99; Medina, Discovery, 133; Cohen, Journeys, 101.

  17 Merchants selling gear and rigging Bernard, Exploration, 99. Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 133. Also quoted in Bernard, Exploration, 101.

  18 “secret and sly factions” Bernard, Exploration, 101; Medina, Discovery, 136.

  19 “The Adelantado has married” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 137; also quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 103. See also Bernard, Exploration, 102.

  20 The inspectors noted the lack of rigging Cohen, Journeys, 106; Medina, Discovery, 141.

  21 “as thoroughly dismantled” Quoted in Cohen, Journeys, 106. See also Bernard, Exploration, 102.

  22 Orellana did … shepherds seriously wounded Medina, Discovery, 144; Cohen, Journeys, 107.

  23 His stop at the Cape Verde Islands … to set sail for the coast of Brazil Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 78.

  24 “seventy-seven colonists, eleven horses” Quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 175. Also in Bernard, Exploration, 103, and Smith, Explorers, 87.

  25 “And amidst this hardship” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 147–48n.

  26 “We went and reconnoitered the shoals” Quoted in Medina, Discovery, 359. From Record of the Statement of Francisco de Guzmán, One of Those Who Went Away with the Adelantado Orellana.

  27 The men also pointed out Ibid.

  28 Still, Orellana stopped, figuring Ibid. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 176; Smith, Explorers, 87; Cohen, Journeys, 110; Muller, Orellana’s Discovery, 79; Bernard, Exploration, 103.

  29 “country so poor that little food was to be had in it” Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 359.

  30 “Their efforts were fruitless” Medina, Discovery, 148. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 176; Smith, Explorers, 87–88.

  31 He left behind at the island camp Medina, Discovery, 149–50; Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 360; Cohen, Journeys, 111.

  32 Juan Griego told the others From Juan Griego, in Medina, Discovery, 149n and 369–74; Cohen, Journeys, 111; Smith, Explorers, 88; Chapman, Golden Dream, 176. There are two distinct and contradictory versions of what happened after Orellana returned to the shipwreck at this point. One account is given by Francisco de Guzmán and the other by Juan Griego, both of whom survived the ordeal and later reported officially on it. According to Guzmán, on Orellana’s return to the shipwreck camp, the thirty or so men he had left were still there building their boat, but he left them again, saying that he “felt ill” and that he “wanted to go back again to look for the branch of the river and go up as far as the point of San Juan” (St. John, the realm of the Amazons). According to Juan Griego’s account, on their return from seeking the main branch of the Amazon, they failed to find the others they had left behind. Scholars are divided on which of the two versions is the more reliable, but we do know that the men did in fact construct a boat and sail away to safety, for a number of them survived.

  33 “He went off again saying that he was ill” Guzmán, in Medina, Discovery, 360.

  34 The Indian guides led them well upriver Ibid.

  35 “because they considered the country to be a good one” Ibid., 361.

  36 “[She] told us that her husband had not succeeded” Ibid.

  37 He died, she said in a whisper, “from grief” Ibid.

  EPILOGUE

  1 “Because of these impious and ignominious deeds” Quoted in Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, xxviii.

  2 Such persuasive rhetoric Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, xiii–xli; Las Casas, History of the Indies, xiv; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 33–34; Hemming, El Dorado, 138–39; Wood, Conquistadors, 268–71. For an excellent, heady, and philosophical analysis of this debate, see Pagden, Fall of Natural Man
, 109–45.

  3 Their journey of migration had consumed ten years Cieza de León, The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de León, First Part of His Chronicle of Peru, translated and edited with notes and an introduction by Clements R. Markham (New York, 1964), 281 and 281n. Also in William Bollaert, translated from Fray Pedro Simón’s “Sixth Historical Notice of the Conquest of Terre Firme,” with an introduction by Clements R. Markham, The Expedition of Pedro de Ursúa and Lope de Aguirre in Search of El Dorado and Omagua in 1560–1 (New York, 1961), xxviii–xxix.

  4 “They emphasized the variety and multitude of the tribes” Quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 35. Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 141. See also Stephen Minta, Aguirre: The Re-Creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South America (London, 1993), 8–9. Also Chapman, Golden Dream, 204.

  5 Those enticing descriptions Bandelier, Gilded Man, 90–91; Hemming, El Dorado, 141; Goodman, Explorers of South America, 71; John Silver, “The Myth of El Dorado,” History Workshop No. 34, Latin American History (Autumn 1992), 1–15.

  6 Ursúa’s personal transport barge Minta, Aguirre, 61.

  7 in official calculations of its length Most serious scientific sources measure the Amazon from its headwaters on the Ucayali in Peru. In 2001 the National Geographic Society accepted a measurement put forth by a Polish expedition, which gave the number of 4,650 miles. See Goulding, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon, 23 and 99.

  8 On New Year’s Day 1561 Bollaert, Expedition, 136–37; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 96–97; Cohen, Journeys, 146; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 38; Hemming, El Dorado, 142.

  9 Aguirre defiantly inscribed “Lope de Aguirre: TRAITOR” Bandelier, Gilded Man, 97; Cohen, Journeys, 150.

  10 Before witnesses … throughout the camp Cohen, Journeys, 159; Bandelier, Gilded Man, 100; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

  11 “gentlemen or persons of quality” Richard Hakluyt, quoted in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

  12 “Men of the Amazon,” and himself “the Wrath of God” Cohen, Journeys, 164; Chapman, Golden Dream, 230–32; Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 39.

  13 Aguirre and his horsehide-covered crews arrived on the island of Margarita Smith, Explorers, 118–20; Chapman, Golden Dream, 235–39.

  14 “This river has a course of over two thousand leagues” Aguirre, quoted in Smith, Explorers, 134. Also quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 254.A slightly different translation of this passage is found in Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 40, and Hemming, El Dorado, 144.

  15 They beheaded the traitor Bollaert, Expedition, 226–27; Chapman, Golden Dream, 260–61; Cohen, Journeys, 196–97; Smith, Explorers, 131–32; Minta, Aguirre, 185–86.

  16 “most appalling in the annals of Spanish enterprise” Clements R. Markham, in Bollaert, Expedition, i; Markham, quoted in Smith, Explorers, 132.

  17 By 1595, using his significant powers of rhetoric Raleigh, Discoverie, translated and edited by Neil L. Whitehead, 71–75; Chapman, Golden Dream, 315 and 337. Raleigh’s expedition to Guiana is covered in detail in Raleigh Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York, 2002), 215–50.

  18 “They say that once this lake is crossed” Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 153. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 279–306, on the journeys of Antonio de Berrio.

  19 “to lie in the rain and weather” Raleigh, Discoverie, 135. Also Raleigh, quoted in Chapman, Golden Dream, 321.

  20 “I know all the earth doth not yield” Raleigh, quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 167.

  21 “We passed the most beautiful country” Raleigh, Discoverie, 163. Quoted also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 324. See also Raleigh, quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 168.

  22 “There was nothing whereof I was more curious” Raleigh, Discoverie, 170–71 and 170–71n.

  23 The curious villagers laid out a feast Ibid., 172.

  24 “The birds towards the evening” Ibid., 176.

  25 These would prove impassable Ibid. Also in Chapman, Golden Dream, 328, and Hemming, El Dorado, 170. 247 “most of the gold” Raleigh, Discoverie, 185. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 331.

  26 “fear not, but strike home” Quoted in Hemming, El Dorado, 193. See also Chapman, Golden Dream, 386. The details surrounding Raleigh’s imprisonment, his failed return to Guiana, and his execution are covered at great length in Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh, 371–553.

  27 once sustained tremendous numbers of people Hemming, Tree of Rivers, 287–88. Here Hemming concisely summarizes and weighs in on the controversial “Meggers-Roosevelt” debate. He suggests an estimate, at the height of the Amazon Basin chiefdom populations, of between 4 and 5 million inhabitants spanning the entire region, with the densest populations in the “chiefdoms of the great rivers and surrounding savannahs,” which is precisely what Orellana saw and Carvajal recorded. See also Mann, 1491, 310. Woods McCann, of the New School, suggests that based on pottery findings in the lower Tapajos drainage alone, “you’d be talking about something capable of supporting about 200,000 to 400,000 people.” This would make it at the time, according to Charles Mann, “one of the most densely populated places in the world.” For a concise and cogent theory of the definition of and origins/development of chiefdoms, see Robert L. Carneiro, The Muse of History and the Science of Culture (New York, 2000), 182–86.

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