The River Sea: The Amazon in History, Myth, and Legend

Since its discovery by Europeans in 1500, explorers, visionaries, soldiers of fortune, men of God, scientists, and slavers have been drawn to the legendary Amazon. The River Sea is a sweeping chronicle of those brave souls, ranging form the Spanish seafarer Vicente Pinzon, who discovered the river, to contemporary heroes and heroines, like Sister Dorothy Stang and Chico Mendes, whose efforts to save the rain forest cost them their lives. Among others in this vast cast of characters who people the drama of the Amazon is Francisco de Orellana, the first European to traverse the river from the Andes to the sea; the fiery priest Bartolome de las Casas, defender of the indigenous peoples; the great scientist explorers Alexander von Humboldt and Alfred Russell Wallace; the madmen and psychopath Lope de Aguirre; and the Peruvian Evangeline, Isabel Godin, who in 1769 crossed the continent, braving the terrors of the jungles to reunite with her husband, whom she had not seen in twenty years. The River Sea is a compelling account of five centuries of the history, the myths, and the legends of Rio Amazonas, the most exotic and fascinating locale on Earth.