Exploration Amazon

Exploration

Samuel Fritz’s 1707 map showing the Amazon and the Orinoco
Gonzalo Pizarro set off in 1541 to explore east of Quito into the South American interior in search of El Dorado, the “city of gold” and La Canela, the ”

valley of cinnamon”.[26] He was accompanied by his second-in-command Francisco de Orellana. After 170 kilometres (106 mi), the Coca River joined the Napo River (at a point now known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana); the party stopped for a few weeks to build a boat just upriver from this confluence. They continued downriver through an uninhabited area, where they could not find food.

Orellana offered and was ordered to follow the Napo River, then known as Río de la Canela (“Cinnamon River”) and return with food for the party. Based on intelligence received from a captive native chief named Delicola, they expected to find food within a few days downriver by ascending another river to the north.