crew assumed the other was lost, but after
rounding Trinidad, they were reunited on Sep-
tember 11, 1542, at Cubagua, a small island off
the Venezuelan coast, which was then home to
a colony of Spanish pearl extractors.
ORELLANA’S LAST VOYAGE
During Orellana’s amazing journey, Gonzalo
Pizarro managed to return to Peru after a hor-
rendous ordeal that took the lives of all but 80 of
his men. Pizarro, thinking that his subordinate
had abandoned him, was astonished, then infu-
riated to learn that Orellana was alive. Although
bitter, Pizarro was angrier upon learning of his
brother Francisco’s murder in his absence.
Rather than wreak vengeance on Orellana,
Pizarro successfully fought to regain control of
Peru. The headstrong conquistador met his end
when he led a revolt of colonists protesting the
Spanish Crown’s new laws restricting the rightsConquistadores and “Cows”: The American Buffalo
Indians. Although he had survived one of the
most grueling expeditions in the history of
Spanish exploration, this political misstep led to
his execution in 1548, only seven years after his
brother’s assassination.
Once he convinced the Spanish court that
his trip down the Amazon had not resulted
from a mutiny, Orellana was commissioned toPizarro, Peru, and South America B 79
The Exploration of South America Continues =
The complete history of exploration of South America is little known except to
specialized scholars and would fill volumes with almost incredible tales of hard-
ships, daring, and violence. Between 1540 and 1553, for example, the Spaniard
Pedro de Valdavia both led and sponsored expeditions down the coast of Chile
as far as the Strait of Magellan before he died in battle with the Araucano Indi-
ans (who reportedly ate him). Philip von Hutten, a German aristocrat, spent five
years (1541–46) searching for El Dorado, but he found no such place and died
fighting local Spaniards. In 1561 the Spaniard Pedrode Ursua attempted to
explore what is now known as the Marañón River, which flows from the Andes
across northern Peru to the Amazon. The journey ended in a bloodbath after
one of the officers, Lupe de Aguirre, became insane. He mutinied, executing
Ursua, denouncing the Spanish king, and murdering everyone he suspected of
plotting against him. Aguirre was captured and executed in Venezuela.
The exploration—and challenges—of South America continued throughout
the 1600s. The first major expedition up the Amazon occurred nearly a century
after Orellana’s death: In 1637–39 Pedro de Teixeira commanded an enormous
Portuguese expedition that ascended all the way up the Amazon, continued on
to Quito, and then returned downriver. Teixeira claimed the region for Portugal
upon his return home. Franciscan priests played a major role in pushing ever far-
ther, among them Father Manuel de Biedma, who in 1687, while searching out
better routes in the headwaters of the Amazon, was murdered by local Indians.
Nothing seemed to deter these fearless explorers, however, and by 1700, vir-
tually all the territory of South and Central America was divided up among Euro-
pean nations.\