Pizarro orders Orellana to explore the Coca…

Pizarro orders Orellana to explore the Coca River and return when the river ends.

When they arrive at the confluence with the Napo River, his men threaten to mutiny if they do not continue.

Orellana accepts on December 26, 1541, to change the purpose of the expedition to the conquest of new lands in the name of the King of Spain, and the forty-nine men build a larger boat in which to navigate downstream.

Abandoning the main party, Orellana follows the Napo, intending to descend the river, an Amazon tributary, to the Atlantic Ocean, thus initiating European exploration of the Amazon Basin.

During their navigation on the Napo River, the Omagua-speaking tribes of the Cambeba culture threaten them constantly.

Orellana will report densely populated regions running hundreds of kilometers along the river, suggesting population levels exceeding those of today.

These populations leave no lasting monuments, possibly because they use local wood as their construction material as stone is not locally available.

While it is possible Orellana may have exaggerated the level of development among the Amazonians, their semi-nomadic descendants have the odd distinction among tribal indigenous societies of a hereditary, yet landless, aristocracy, a historical anomaly for a society without a sedentary, agrarian culture.