Francisco de Orellana

Francisco de Orellana Bejarano Pizarro y Torres de Altamirano (fɾanˈθisko ðe oɾeˈʝana; 1511 – November 1546) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. In one of the most improbably successful voyages in known history, Orellana managed to sail the length of the Amazon, arriving at the river's mouth on 24 August 1542. He and his party sailed along the Atlantic coast until reaching Cubagua Island, near the coast of Venezuela. Orellana founded the city of Guayaquil in what is now Ecuador, and died during a second expedition on the Amazon. Born in Trujillo, Caceres (various birth dates, ranging from 1490 to 1511, are still quoted by biographers), Orellana was a close friend and possibly a relative of Francisco Pizarro, the Trujillo-born conquistador of Peru (his cousin, according to some historians). He traveled to the New World (probably in 1527). Orellana served in Nicaragua until joining Pizarro's army in Peru in 1533, where he supported Pizarro in his conflict with Diego de Almagro (1538). After the victory over De Almagro's men, he was appointed governor of La Culata. He re-established the town of Guayaquil, previously founded by Pizarro and repopulated by Sebastián de Belalcázar. (During the civil war, he sided with the Pizarros and was Ensign General of a force sent by Francisco Pizarro from Lima to aid Hernando Pizarro. He was granted land at Puerto Viejo, on the coast of Ecuador.) In 1540 Gonzalo Pizarro arrived in Quito as vice governor and was charged by Francisco Pizarro, his older paternal half-brother, with an expedition to locate the "Land of Cinnamon", thought to be somewhere to the east. Orellana was one of Gonzalo Pizarro's lieutenants during his 1541 expedition east of Quito into the South American interior. In Quito, Gonzalo Pizarro collected a force of 220 Spaniards and 4000 natives. At the same time, as second in command, Orellana was sent back to Guayaquil to gather troops and horses. Pizarro left Quito in February 1541, just before Orellana arrived with his 23 men and horses.

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Related concepts (12)

Conquistador

Conquistadors (kɒnˈk(w)ɪstədɔːrz, USalso-ˈkiːs-,_kɒŋˈ-) or conquistadores (koŋkistaˈðoɾes, kõkiʃtɐˈðoɾɨʃ, kõkistɐˈdoɾis; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa, and Asia, colonizing and opening trade routes. They brought much of the Americas under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.

Peru

Peru (pəˈruː ; Perú peˈɾu; Quechua: Piruw pɪɾʊw; Piruw pɪɾʊw), officially the Republic of Peru (), is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon River.

El Dorado

El Dorado (el doˈɾaðo, ˌɛl_dəˈrɑːdoʊ; Spanish for "the golden") is commonly associated with the legend of a gold city, kingdom, or empire purportedly located somewhere in the Americas. Originally, El Hombre Dorado ("The Golden Man") or El Rey Dorado ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (zipa) or king of the Muisca people, an indigenous people of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of Colombia, who as an initiation rite, covered himself with gold dust and submerged in Lake Guatavita.