by Hugh Thomas
At last they were able to sail out of the mouth of the great river. It was, as they all knew, August 25, Saint Louis’s Day, 244 days since they separated from Gonzalo Pizarro. They had lost fourteen men in that time. Fray Carvajal noted: “We rested a day making ropes and, as the rest of the things with which we fitted ourselves out were imitations, and made by men without experience and unaccustomed to such professions, they lasted only a short time. So it was necessary to keep working and fitting ourselves out at random. In this way in one place, a sail was made and in another a rudder, in a third a pump, and in one further instance some rigging. In the case of each of these things, so long as we did not have them, we were in great danger.” Carvajal went on to say that he was leaving out a “list of many other things which we lacked such as pilots and sailors and a compass … and without them there was no man, however devoid of common sense, that would thus dare to go to sea except ourselves.”21
They emerged into the Atlantic by sheer chance in a zone that the Treaty of Tordesillas had given to Spain, not to Portugal.
Meantime, Gonzalo Pizarro was at the confluence of the Napo and the Coca, about 1,600 miles away as the crow flies: It took a long time for the truth of what had happened to be realized by Gonzalo Pizarro. He later accused Orellana of treachery. He said that Orellana had “shown the greatest cruelty in which any faithless man could indulge, abandoning Gonzalo Pizarro and the rest in those wildernesses among so many rivers and without food and caught in vast uninhabited regions, also carrying off all the arquebuses and crossbows, the iron materials of the whole expeditionary force. After great hardship, that expeditionary force did arrive at the junction of the rivers Coca and Napo.”22 Gonzalo never considered what might have happened to prevent his friends’ return, and since then his view has been widely canvassed. Even the historian Oviedo, who came to know Orellana afterwards, seems to have thought that he should, and could, easily have returned to where Gonzalo Pizarro was waiting.23 Few appreciated that the force of the currents made a return virtually impossible.
Gonzalo went on in his accusation: “And paying no heed whatever to what he owed to the service of Your Majesty, and to do what was his duty as he had been instructed by myself, instead of bringing back the food, he [Orellana] went on down the river without leaving any arrangements [to inform me] … And when my expeditionary force, having gone that far [saw] that there was no relief for them in the way of food … they became greatly discouraged, because for many days they had eaten nothing but palm shoots and some fruit which had fallen from trees and which they found on the ground, together with all kinds of noxious wild beasts which they had been able to find since they had eaten in this wild country more than 1,000 dogs and more than 100 horses.”
Gonzalo Pizarro led his men down to where the rivers met. Having been told that food was to be had up the river that the Coca joined, he went there. Indeed there was food in abundance. There they rested and all the same ate their remaining eighty horses. Realizing that Orellana and their other friends were gone for good, they returned to the point where the two companies had parted and began a long, dispiriting journey home to Quito.
This was one of the worst journeys in the history of the empire. Lost in forests without paths, in heavy tropical rain, Gonzalo’s men floundered slowly west, many barefoot, suffering as much from the thorns and the roots as from the mosquitoes and wild animals, often having to clear the way with their swords. It rained so much that days went by without their being able to see the sun. The Spaniards were always drenched, and such clothes as they had rotted, so that they had no alternative to going naked. All the four thousand or so Indian porters had died, and two-thirds of the Spaniards, also. About eighty Spaniards reached more open land, which they knew to be close to Quito. There, they found game—there were birds—and thus, unshod, they walked into the neighborhood of that city, kissing the earth and eating with such passion that most nearly died of a surfeit. Gonzalo Pizarro said: “At the cost of great suffering and with the loss of everything which we had taken with us, we returned to Quito with only our swords and a staff in hand. To Quito from where we turned back must have been more than 800 miles and a much greater distance by the route by which we returned.”24
Quito was for emptier than it had been when Gonzalo had left, for half the population had gone to the war against Almagro. All the survivors of Gonzalo’s expedition needed new clothes, but tailors were hard to find. Six suits were brought out by the citizenry to greet Gonzalo, but he and his close friends did not wish to wear what could not be worn by everyone in their party. So, half-naked, they went to the cathedral to give thanks for their survival, in scenes of great emotion. Then the bitterness at Orellana’s action took shape with a vengeance.
28
Orellana and New Andalusia
The nearer the church the further from God, and all is not gold that glistreth.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, Don Quixote
The extraordinary journey of Orellana was, meantime, continuing. Leaving the Amazon, he and his friends soon found themselves north of the estuary in the alarming Gulf of Paria. Once in it, like most sixteenth-century travelers there, they found it very difficult to leave. Fray Carvajal described how this took seven days, “during all of which time our companions never dropped the oars from their hands and during all these seven days, we ate nothing but some fruit resembling plums called hogos.” Carvajal added, “Having escaped from this prison, we proceeded for two days along the coast [of Guiana] at the end of which, without knowing where we were, or where we were going, nor what was to become of us, we made port in the island of Cubagua [on September 11, 1542] and then in the city of Nueva Cádiz, where we found our company and the small brigantine which had arrived two days before.”1
Most of the survivors, about forty all told, returned to Peru. In no time, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal found himself in charge of the Dominican house in Cuzco—a foundation that had become rich because of the hundred sacks of coca leaf given to it by Hernando Pizarro. But Orellana and some of his close associates bought a ship in Trinidad and went first to Santo Domingo, then to Spain via Portugal. In Santo Domingo, Orellana met the historian of Spain in the New World, Oviedo, who eventually wrote a good, clear, and detailed account of the journey down the Amazon.2
Orellana returned to Europe, where he was delayed some days in Portugal. He reached Valladolid in May 1543. The secretary of the Council of the Indies, Juan de Samano, wrote to the King’s principal secretary, Cobos: “There has arrived from Peru one who came out by going down a river which he navigated for a distance of 1,800 leagues and emerged at the Cape of San Agustín; and because of the particulars which he has brought with him covering his voyage, Your Lordship will not hear him without fatigue. I shall not relate these particulars since he will shortly come himself.” In the margin of this letter Cobos made a note: “Would like an account sent to H.M.”
The account by Orellana was based on the notes of Fray Carvajal. It was widely read, sometimes with disbelief. People laughed at the idea that there were Amazons. López de Gomera, Cortés’s chaplain and biographer, commented that “women can shoot perfectly well with a right breast still there.” He added that others besides Orellana had proclaimed this same story about Amazons ever since the Indies had been discovered. There was also anxiety whether the river on which Orellana had traveled was in Portuguese territory according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. Still, the river of Orellana remains known as the Amazon, and the course of the Amazon is actually to the west of the longitude 48˚ and, therefore, beyond the border of the Spanish zone as declared by the pope at Tordesillas.
Orellana also faced the bitter criticism of Gonzalo Pizarro, who had already reported to the Council that “he ran off with a brigantine and canoes filled with men and property belonging to him and, as a consequence a certain number died of hunger.” Orellana, however, wrote a note to the King about the great size and wealth of the country that he had seen and across which he had traveled. He ended by
stating that the natives inhabiting the land alongside the Amazon were intelligent and so “will be able to come into a knowledge of our Holy Catholic Faith.” Because of that, he beseeched the King “to see fit to give it to me as territory to be held by me as governor in order that I may be able to explore it and colonize it on behalf of Your Majesty.”3
The Council of the Indies was more cautious in respect of this demand than it would have been a generation before: “It may be a rich country,” it conceded, “and one by which Your Majesty might be rendered a service.” The Council agreed, however, that “it would be advantageous to the service of Your Majesty that the banks of the river be explored and settled and taken possession of within the shortest time.” The Council noted that the Portuguese had built flotillas to go up the Amazon from the coast and that the King of France was also interesting himself in these regions. It was, however, the view of a majority on the Council that the business of exploration and colonization should be entrusted to Orellana. The minority opinion was confined to the untrustworthy Dr. Bernal, who thought that Orellana was inappropriate as a commander since he was poor. Nor did Dr. Bernal believe that Orellana could live up to the instructions that would be given to him. The land would be stirred up, and people would come to hate the Christian religion. Bernal thought that a peacefully inclined captain should be sent to the Amazon without soldiers in attendance but with clergymen “who would try out all the good and most feasible means for bringing the land round both to the service of God and to obedience to Your Majesty.”4
Another member of the Council of the Indies was now Licenciado Gutierre Velázquez, who had never left Spain. He assumed that any new expedition on the Amazon would begin from Peru—approximately, indeed, from where Orellana had started off. Orellana, he thought, should take 180 men from Spain, of whom seventy would be cavalrymen. They should not take food from the Indians by force but should barter for it.5
In the end, in February 1544, Orellana did receive a contract from the Crown “to discover and populate the lands which are called New Andalusia.” Who suggested this name is not evident from the surviving papers; presumably it was not Orellana himself.
Prince Regent Philip accepted Orellana’s version of what had happened: “Owing to the current, you were all carried down the said river for over 600 miles to a place where you could not turn back.” Orellana’s new territory would extend many miles from the mouth of the river. There would be a city founded at the mouth and another at some distance inland at a place where he, the royal officials, and the friars thought best. Orellana would be adelantado, that coveted title, also governor and captain-general.6 He would take with him two hundred infantrymen, one hundred horse, and eight friars, as well as material to build brigantines in which to sail up the river. Orellana’s salary would be 5,000 ducats a year, to be paid from the profits of the lands conquered and settled, together with a twelfth of the royal revenue, provided it was not more than one million maravedís each year. He would be exempt from taxes, and he would be able to take eight African slaves with him. Orellana was warned: “If some governor or captain shall have explored or colonised some section of the river bank and shall be on it when you arrive, you should not do anything in detriment to his interests … even though you may find this to be within your jurisdiction as governor, so that we can avoid those disturbances which have arisen out of such situations in Peru and elsewhere.” Orellana was told to keep to the rules that had been agreed with the “most serene King of Portugal” regarding the division of the Indies and also with regard to the Moluccas and the Spice Islands.7
There were several minor instructions: No Indians were to be carried on Orellana’s boats “unless it be an occasional Indian boy whom the Spaniards … may have brought up [to be an interpreter]” and even for that, authorization had to be given by the Viceroy of Peru. Orellana was told that neither he nor any member of his party should take away from the Indians “any married woman nor child nor any woman whatsoever, no gold nor silver nor cotton nor feathers nor precious stones nor any other article unless it be by bartering and by payment.” But when the food which the expedition was to take from Spain ran out, they should “be entitled to ask the Indians for some with offers of barter and, in cases where this may fail, then they may appeal to them for the said food with entreaties and kind words and means of persuasion, in such a way that they shall never go so far as to take it by force except after all these means, as well as others which the inspector and the friars together with the captain may advise, shall have been tried out.” It was also stipulated that in no way whatsoever was war to be waged against the Indians unless it be to defend themselves, with the restraint that the situation might demand. For His Majesty was sending Orellana and his men “solely to teach and instruct the Indians”—not to fight them, but “to impart to them a knowledge of God and our Holy Catholic Faith and the obedience which they owe to Your Majesty.”
Finally, the provisions stated: “No occasion is to be allowed to arise to be an excuse wherewith the Spaniards may hold Indians or maltreat them or prevent them from becoming Christians.”8 These provisions were written after the passage of the famous New Laws of 1542.
From May to November 1544, Orellana was busy in Spain recruiting men for his expedition. Thus he found that there was in Seville a shortage of sailors who wanted to take part. So Orellana thought that he would do well to take Portuguese sailors “because they are experienced in small, well-fitted-out vessels.” Nor was there any Castilian who knew the region of the Amazon at all. Orellana told the Emperor that he wanted to be able to take as many Portuguese pilots as he desired. Then guns could not be found unless the Emperor provided them. In September 1544, we find a letter from Prince Philip (the regent) writing from Valladolid to Orellana saying that, through Fray Pablo de Torres, he had become informed of the preparations for the great journey and of the excellent prospects that there were. As to Torres, because he was so experienced and so good, “it would be wise to get advice from him in whatever you undertake.” The Prince added, “Be warned against taking any Portuguese because it is believed that they would be a source of trouble.”
When, a few weeks later, Fray Torres reported that Orellana seemed to be running out of money, the Prince wrote to the friar, “There is no possibility of our helping out with any money at all. I am telling, too, the Casa de la Contratación not to allow on this expedition anyone of whom you disapprove. But it is perfectly all right to take stallions as well as mares.” He was in agreement that arms should be neither given nor sold to the Indians. But general Spanish opinion was that there was advantage in the Spaniards giving attention to the teaching of the Indians to be artisans. At the end of October, we read of Orellana writing to the King to say that his stepfather, Cosme de Chaves of Trujillo, was helping with the expedition to the extent of 1,600 ducats and that Genoese merchants were going to assist with another 2,500, thanks to the dealings of Vicente del Monte. This letter received a sharp answer: Directed to Orellana, “Governor of the province of New Andalusia,” the Prince said, “[I have] learned that Orellana was entering into a contract for aid from various merchants … we do not consider that to be true because we don’t think that you could do such a thing.” The Prince added, “You must not go against what Fray Pablo says.”9
At the end of November 1544, Orellana explained something else: “In order the better to perpetuate myself, I have become married.”10 This was to Ana de Ayala, who agreed to travel with him to New Andalusia, along with “a few sisters-in-law.” This seems to have made Orellana unpopular. But not as much as his nomination of a Genoese camp master did.
By now, the preparations for the voyage back to the Amazon were almost complete, but relations on board and in the dockyard in Seville continued poorly. Cristóbal de Maldonado, the chief constable on board and in effect in control of discipline, was on bad terms with Orellana, whom he knew well, having been with him on the Amazon. Orellana hired as pilot a good sailor from Cádiz, Francisco S
ánchez, who, however, did not know the coast of Brazil. A Portuguese who did know that territory was also hired, but it took time to secure approval for his participation.
Fray Pablo de Torres reported ill of these preparations. He wrote that when he arrived in Seville, he found the whole expedition to New Andalusia in a “very disorganized and even desperate condition.” One of the ships was damaged, so that it had to be replaced by another, smaller one. To those who complained, Orellana said that he planned to take on the horses that he needed in the Canary or the Cape Verde Islands and that he already had all the materials necessary to build small boats in situ. Seville was outraged at the fact that not only were many of the sailors Portuguese but also some of them were even English, German, or Flemish. The master of the flagship (the capitana) came from Dubrovnik! Torres was unable to examine the expedition’s accounts, which were kept secret by Orellana and his Genoese friends. Orellana seemed to have managed everything so badly that “no organiser of an expedition would have let him go from [there] to Naples,” much less to the Amazon. Fray Torres wrote, “I do not wish to relate the infinite errors … which have been perpetrated in connection with the enterprise. The man who has completely ruined things has been [Vicente] del Monte, who has made himself rich out of the money of the Genoese through deals, and the adelantado [Orellana] has been putting up with all this. How could the fleet be well fitted out if to his own wife, who is excessively poor, they have given jewels, silks and embroideries and if the Gen-oese have handed over the 3,000 ducats in small change; and if the Adelantado and Del Monte had money in their pockets while the rest of the expedition is perishing from hunger and thirst.” It seems to have been the incompetence of Orellana that most shocked Fray Pablo, who wrote to the prince regent Philip, “I assure Your Highness that he is not carrying enough water to reach the Canaries nor jars in which to secure any if it takes them fifteen days to get there … and also the deck of the ship on which the adelantado is sailing is full of women [llena de mujeres].”11