Francisco de Orellana

Francisco de Orellana is a navigator and Spanish Explorateur which named the river the Amazon. It is born in Trujillo (in Extrémadure) on an unknown date but which is probably between 1490 and 1511, and dies in 1545 in Amazonia.

It is used very young person for the Nicaragua (as of 1527), then takes part in the conquest of Peru with Francisco Pizarro starting from 1535. There, it remelts Santiago de Guayaquil and becomes governor about it.

He leaves in February 1541 Quito and joined Gonzalo Pizarro for a forwarding in the interior of the continent, with the research of the grooves, which was worth then expensive with the weight than the Or in Europe. He cross the the Andes and reach the Río Napo, after having lost 140 of the 220 Spaniards and 3000 of the 4000 Indians of forwarding. Having discovered only false cinnamon-trees, Pizarro makes burn and devour by its dogs its Indiens guides. They separate there the February 22nd 1542: Pizarro turns over to Quito, and Orellana continuous.

It builds initially San Pedro, small a Brigantin, to transport the patients and the casualties. Then it changes idea, makes build another brigantin, Victoria and starts the descent with 57 men. Carrying out one of the riskiest voyages of all the history of explorations, Orellana manages to descend Rio Napo, the Trinidad river, the Rio Negro and the Amazon, from which he discovers the mouth after 4800 km of descent. They stop (island of Marajó) to repair, and join there Nueva Cadiz de Cubagua the September 11th 1542. Here how the Amazon accepted the name which remained to him: the father Gaspar de Carvajal, chronicler of Orellana reported that they had been attacked, on June 24th, 1542, by the savage warlike ones: it is possible however that these enemies were Amerindians carrying the long hair. Orellana is also at the origin of the legend of the El Dorado. It receives letters patent of Charles Quint to establish colonies with the mouth of the river the February 18th 1544. He marries a poor young girl, Anna de Ayala, and sets out again the May 11th 1545 with three vessels. He loses one during the crossing, and gives up the other of them while arriving. He dies of an arrow poisoned at the time of a combat with the Indiens the Caribbean. The rare survivors, whose his woman, were helped by the crew of the third ship, arrived late. Lope de Aguirre took the command. The majority of the survivors settled in America.

A province of the Ecuador bears its name today.

It is its first voyage, reported by the father Gaspar de Carbajal, missionary with Lima (and brother of Francisco de Carbajal, companion of Pizzare), which is the most important source of the myth of Eldorado.

Random links: