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Updated: July 23, 2025
We are going down it, however, like Orellana and La Condamine did so many centuries ago, and I am not at all surprised at their marvelous descriptions." "A little fabulous," replied Benito. "Now, brother," said Minha seriously, "say no evil of our Amazon." "To remind you that it has its legends, my sister, is to say no ill of it."
Annatto is a colouring principle obtained from the pulpy matter enclosing the seeds of the fruit of a tree, the Bixa orellana, growing in Central and Southern America. The red or orange colour it yields is fugitive, and so its use is limited, being chiefly confined to silk dyeing.
But we must return to Gonzalo Pizarro. His embarrassment and consternation had been great, when on arriving at the confluence of the Napo and Marañon, he had not found Orellana, who was to have been awaiting him.
Would not the discovery and conquest of El Dorado, of the country in which according to Orellana, the temples are roofed with plates of gold, where all the tools, even those for the meanest purposes, are made of gold, where one walks upon precious stones, "procure for him greater glory," these are the very words which Raleigh employs in his account, "than Cortès had gained in Mexico, or Pizarro in Peru.
Francisco de Orellana, after having vainly sought El Dorado with Pizarro in the Provincia de los Canelos, and on the auriferous banks of the Napo, went down the great river of the Amazon. They are three powerful nations, the latter of which, stretching toward the west along the banks of the Guape or Uaupe, had been already mentioned in the voyages of Quesada and Huten.
They here built a brigantine, in which, and in some canoes, procured or taken from the natives, they embarked their sick, with their treasure, provisions, and spare apparel, under the charge of Francis de Orellana; while Gonsalvo Pizarro marched by land with the rest of the people along the river, going every night into the boats.
And so was the village of Faro and its celebrated river of the Nhamundas, on which, in 1539, Orellana asserted he was attacked by female warriors, who have never been seen again since, and thus gave us the legend which justifies the immortal name of the river of the Amazons. Here it is that the province of Rio Negro terminates.
But the Spaniards gathered no tidings of Orellana, while the country, though more populous than the region they had left, was as little inviting in its aspect, and was tenanted by a race yet more ferocious. They now abandoned the hope of recovering their comrades, who they supposed must have miserably perished by famine or by the hands of the natives.
To the above-mentioned changes and indispensable acts of assistance granted by this royal Audiencia, is added that which was secured by the illustrious bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia, Doctor Don Francisco Pizarro de Orellana, who came before the royal Audiencia, saying that the archbishop had, in the credentials which he had given to the bishop, reserved for his own cognizance the case of Bachelor Diego de Espinosa Marañón although this was a trial in the first instance, and the said bachelor was under the bishop's parochial care and was cura of the benefice of Vigan, one of the parishes belonging to his bishopric.
The success of this remarkable undertaking amply proved, at that early date, the facility of the river navigation, the practicability of the country, and the good disposition of the aboriginal inhabitants. The river, however, was first discovered by the Spaniards, the mouth having been visited by Pinzon in 1500, and nearly the whole course of the river navigated by Orellana in 1541-2.
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