Down To Earth speaks to Idaho-based author of 2011 book on the first voyage to navigate the Amazon river in 1542
A mural depicting Spanish Conquistador, Francisco de Orellana in the town of Puerto Francisco de Orellana, also known as El Coca in the province of Orellana, eastern Ecuador. The city is located in the Amazon Rainforest at the confluence of the Coca and Napo rivers. Photo: WIkimedia Commons, CC 2.0
The Amazon, the largest river on Earth (also in competition with the Nile for being the longest), has faced an unprecedented emergency in the latter half of this year.
The river that usually pours 60 million gallons of water into the Atlantic at its estuary every second, has run dry. Some of its biggest tributaries such as the left bank Rio Negro (‘Black River’ in Spanish and Portuguese) — which meets the main stem in Brazil’s Manaus creating the ‘Meeting of the Waters’ — are now bone-dry as the entire region suffers from one of its worst droughts ever.
The Amazon was navigated for its entire length for the first time by Spanish Conquistador, Francisco de Orellana, who reached the river’s mouth on August 24, 1542.
Orellana, a Castilian, was related to Francisco Pizarro, the Conquistador who defeated Atahualpa of the Inca Empire. He had been charged by Pizarro to go east from Peru in search of a fabled ‘Land of Cinnamon’.
Orellana named the mighty river he navigated as Rio Amazonas (‘River of Amazons’) after his party fought an Amerindian tribe of warrior women along their way, reminding him of the Amazons of Greek myth.
How would Orellana respond to the current state of the river he ‘discovered’ nearly five centuries ago? Down To Earth spoke to Idaho-based author, Buddy Levy, whose 2011 book River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon chronicles the Orellana expedition. Edited excerpts:
Rajat Ghai (RG): What are your first reactions to what is unfolding in the Amazon?
Author Buddy Levy. Photo credit: From his official website
Buddy Levy (BL): The Amazon basin is under siege on multiple fronts, including deforestation as a result of mining, cattle ranching, and road building for satisfying the vested interests of Big Oil and Big Dams.
Combined, these are grave threats to the most diverse ecosystem in the world. Deforestation is also occurring from the slashing and burning of trees for soy farms, palm oil plantations and new towns that are part of what are being termed as “colonisation projects,” which also displace indigenous populations of people (and animals). Since 1978, nearly half a million square miles of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed, an area about the size of Texas and California combined.
RG: What would Francisco de Orellana think about the drying up of the Amazon?
BL: Orellana would be stunned and stupefied by the low water levels in the Amazon, the so-called “drying up.” When he went downriver in 1541-42, he encountered floodwaters that made the river fifty miles wide in places!
He saw tributaries that, in their own right, were larger than any rivers he had ever encountered in his native Spain. Frankly, I don’t think he would believe it.
RG: Orellana’s expedition, in a way, led to what we are witnessing at the Amazon today. Would you agree?
BL: The sad reality is that Francisco’s “discovery” of the Amazon river and basin did create a wave of followers who would come after him, setting in motion a swarm migration of people who arrived in the ensuing centuries to plunder, pillage, and attempt to colonise the vast region.
It became a mass invasion of missionaries, slavers, timber men, oilmen, rubber barons, bio-tech companies, you name it. But that is history. What we need to do now is learn from what happened and do better moving forward—helping to preserve what is left. It is paramount that we do so.
RG: The Amazon pours (or used to pour) 60 million gallons of water per second into the Atlantic. What was Orellana’s reaction when he and his men reached its estuary?
BL: Orellana and his men were dumbfounded by the immensity of the Amazon’s size where it poured into the Atlantic. It was so massive that they believed the river was still the sea until they tasted the water and found it fresh—and they named that part of the river the Sweet Water Sea. At the Amazon’s terminus, there were islands the size of Switzerland; that’s how massive a body of water it is.
RG: Can humanity save the Amazon from the situation what we have thrust upon it?
BL: I believe that yes, humanity is in a position to preserve what remains of this wondrous place. But it’s going to take a lot of effort from a lot of people who have the political and economic will to do so.
It’s certainly complicated by the incredible amount of money that is available by continuing to exploit the resources. It’s hard to stop Big Oil, Big Timber, and governments (and contractors) who stand to make billions on hydroelectric dams. But there are a number of organisations which are trying to save the Amazon. People can give to or support them.
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