Relación del Nuevo Descubrimiento del Famoso Río Grande de las Amazonas

de Carvajal, Fray Gaspar, Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso Río Grande de las Amazonas, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1955.

Gaspar de Carvajal (c. 1500–1584) was a Spanish Dominican missionary to the New World, known for chronicling some of the explorations of the Amazon.
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Caravajal, who was one of the survivors of the expedition, narrated the events in his work Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana… In it, the friar recorded the dates of the expedition as well as a large number of notes of ethnological interest such as the sizes and dispositions of the indigenous peoples which occupied the banks of the river, their tactics of war, rituals, customs, utensils, and the like. (…)Father Carvajal's diary of the Orellana expedition has achieved prominence recently. For over four centuries, scholars dismissed its reports of large cities, well developed roads, monumental construction, fortified towns, and dense populations. It was thought that the acidic soils of Amazonia could not support the level of agriculture necessary to sustain such a civilization. His writings were largely dismissed as fabrications and propaganda. New archeological finds in the 21st century have verified much of his diary. This is a developing story, but our understanding of pre-Columbian Amazonia is being revolutionized. Father Carvajal's writings are being scrutinized for important clues on this lost civilization and for planning future archeological digs. They stand as the most valued contemporary chronicle of the pre-Columbian Amazonia culture, written before it disappeared and its works reclaimed by the jungle.

Disponible en línea.