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conquer the regions he had discovered. He col-
lected a force of 400 men and, with his young
wife aboard, sailed west. They reached Brazil in
about Christmas 1545 and traveled 150 miles
upriver. The ships quickly became lost in the
maze of the Amazon delta, where most of the
expedition—including Orellana—perished
from starvation, disease, or Indian attacks.
Orellana’s grave was never found. Only his wife
and a few survivors lived to relate his fate.
RALEIGH’S TRAVELOGUE
The wealth discovered in Peru and Bolivia
concentrated exploratory efforts on the
Pacific side of South America. The eastern half
of the continent, ceded earlier to Portugal by
the Treaty of Tordesillas, was slow to be seen
as fit for anything more than trading outposts
and slaving raids. Yet Europeans continued to
seek a water route linking the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, avoiding the dangerous pas-
sage through the Strait of Magellan.
The myth of El Dorado would not die. A
decade after organizing the colony at Vir-
ginia, English noble Sir Walter Raleigh
returned to the Americas and explored the
coasts of present-day Venezuela and Guyana
in 1595. He found no treasure, but wrote a
book about his travels, The Discoverie of the
Large, Rich,and Bewtiful Empyre of Guyana,
which became a best seller across Europe.
Raleigh claimed with misleading enthusiasm
that Guyana was brimming with gold and
exotic Indians, including one tribe “reported
to have their eyes in their shoulders, and
their mouths in the middle of their chests.”
Raleigh made a second foray into the
Orinoco River delta in 1616, looking for El
Dorado and seeking a strategic port from
which to battle Spain. He did, in fact, sack a
Spanish settlement, an act that proved to be
fatal. As a friendly gesture toward Spain,
James I imprisoned Raleigh for disobeying
orders and had him beheaded.
By 1600 Spain controlled much of the west-
ern half of South America. Armed resistance by
Native peoples continued for centuries, but the
face of South America had changed forever.
Only the most remote parts of the continent,
some of which remain unexplored to this day,
were untouched by the conquest.(^80) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
Sir Walter Raleigh led an expedition in South America
in search of the fabled El Dorado. (Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-111785])
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