Or should I say, 1st Non-Native survivor?  Yes, the history of the Amazon is
rich in tales of survival, and none more compelling than that of the first of the
Europeans to explore it, Francisco de Orellana.  He grew up in the ancestoral
home of the famous family of conquistadors, the Pissaro's.  It was Fernando
Pissaro who crushed and conquered the Incas, and then set up his family to
run the new empire.  Orellana was a cousin of Fernando's nephew, Gonzalo,
who was later named governor of Ecuador.  In February of 1541, Orellana had
arrived in Quito, capital of Ecuador, to join his cousin as a captain of Gonzalo's
army of conquistadors.  They had been assembled to search and conquer El
Dorado. 

For years, rumors had been floating about in Quito about an empire, richer
than that of the Incas.  Ruled by a king, so wealthy, he covered himself in
gold dust every morning, and washed it off at night.  He was 'The Golden Man',
El Dorado.  Given the wonders and treasures the conquistadors had already
seen, this rumor was taken seriously.  After all, they had stripped some six
tons of gold from the Incan temples.  One had a garden, complete with trees,
flowers, and even llamas, all in solid gold.  That there was an even richer land
beyond the Andes Mountains was not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Gonzalo Pissaro had taken it upon himself to find this treasure.  He assembled
an army of 200 conquistadors, 4,000 native bearers, 4,000 llamas as pack ani-
mals and to provide milk, plus 2,000 pigs, 2,000 hunting dogs, and hundreds
of horses.  Across the Andes they went, traveling into the unknown.  For months
they advanced at a snail's pace, barely a mile a day, hacking their way through
the jungle.  Crossing hundreds of streams and rivers, having to build their own
bridges and roads.  Starvation set in, claiming all the native bearers first, as
they were on the bottom of the food chain.  Eventually, even the Spaniards
were reduced to eating bugs to survive.

After six months, they reached the Cocoa River.  With so many sick and dying,
Pissaro haulted for a month to build a boat to carry those who could no longer
walk.  The army continued for a few more weeks down the Cocoa, but they were
demoralized and getting sicker by the hour.  Pissaro refused to turn back, so his
trusted, old friend, Orellana, proposed an alternative.  Orellana would take
the boat downriver for a bit and try to locate some food.  They would return
in a few days.  Pissaro, at the end of his rope, agreed.

Orellana and the fifty-seven men who went with him soon realized that there
was no way they could fight the Cocoa's strong currents.  They then chose to
follow the only course left to them, go down the river and trust in God.  The
group soon happened across some friendly natives, the Imara tribe, who fed
and nursed Orellana and his men back to health.  Orellana took special care
to learn the languages of the peoples he encountered.  Some of the other
men would later write, that it was their Captain's knowledge of language that
truly saved them.  Orellana also knew that their survival depended on kind
treatment of the natives they met, and not the usual methods of the Conquistador.

Meanwhile, Pissaro and the rest of his army were getting worse.  Furious at
the betrayal of his friend, Gonzalo swore revenge against Orellana.  Pissaro
finally gave the order to return to Quito.  Only a handful managed to make it.
Pissaro publicaly denounced Orellana as a traitor, and petitioned the king of
Spain for his execution.  But where was Orellana?

After spending about a month with the Irama, Orellana and his party set out
again on the Cocoa, and quickly entered the River Napo, a main artery of
the Amazon.  A month later, the party was on the Amazon proper.  They entered
more densely populated areas, some with towns and villages that went on
continuously for dozens of miles.  Many of these tribes were friendly, some
were not.  Orellana learned that Amazona was made up of a confederation of
tribes all along the river.  He claims that there were between five and six mil-
lion people living on the Amazon.  There are scarcely a quarter million native
people left today.  Orellana's journey may have been one of discovery for him
and Spain, but it was genocide to the natives who were decimated by small pox
and other European diseases from later explorers and opportunists.  The true
history of Amazona remains to this day, to be a mystery.

Finally, after 563 days, and over 2,200 miles, since crossing the Andes, in August
of 1542, Orellana and his men arrived at the Atlantic Ocean.  They were able
to rejoin European civilization, and return to Spain.  Orellana now had to face
the charges which Pissaro had made against him.  Armed with well docu-
mented accounts of their voyage of the Amazon, Orellana was able to con-
vince the king that he was not a traitor.  This was made easier also by the
fact that Gonzalo had run into trouble of his own.  Other families, supported
by the king, were making claims, and war, on the Pissaro's and their hold-
ings.  The family of ruthless conquistadors had stepped on too many feet,
and were now paying the price.  They soon lost their previous wealth and lands. 

In 1544, the king of Spain granted Orellana title as Governor of the Amazon,
and so, Orellana returned to his river.  Perhaps, he hoped to one day resume
the search for El Dorado, but it was not meant to be.  His mission failed, and
he died in Amazona along with most of his new expedition. 

For more information, I encourage reading the book, or watching the com-
panion PBS documentary, "Conquistador" by Michael Wood.