The Amazons
(Story with a historical setting style)
The date is 1541. The place: unknown to the travellers, but somewhere along a river that appears to have no beginning and no end. No Europeans have been this way before. Yet the natives keep talking of a place that is made of pure gold. So Francisco de Orellana pushes on, as greedy as his men to make a fortune. They see no one. But they are not alone. They sense it.
Francisco thinks back to when they first heard of El Dorado, the Spanish for "the golden one". It's a story of a tribal king who used to cover himself with gold dust and then dive into a mountain lake. There has been talk of this king and of his city which is entirely built of gold. It is rumoured to be deep in the rainforest. Now the Spanish governor is keen to find it, so he has collected 340 soldiers and about 4000 native people to make an expedition. Francisco is the nephew of the governor, so he is brought along.
Yet no one wants to go into the unknown. The native people they are using as porters are afraid. They would have fled if it had not been for the constant threat of the soldier's guns. But preparations were rushed. They started out ill-prepared. There was not enough food and the forest seemed to have nothing for them to eat. They could hear animals, but could not see them to shoot them. Hunger sets in, and with it disease.
Many of the natives and some of the soldiers fall ill and die. It is getting to be impossible, as they push on and on. Finally, as the natives flee, the governor decides that his main party should wait until food can be brought to them. So he orders Francisco to press on with a small band of 49 men, see what he can find and then return.
But it had not worked out that way. The men did not want to turn back and threatened to mutiny. The thought of gold was all they cared about. Francisco had no choice but to give way. So they have pressed on in a boat they have built. Surely the governor will have thought they have deserted and Francisco has no gold.
They put in to the river bank to find food. They know it is going to be dangerous, for they have been attacked many times before. They begin to move cautiously inland through the thick tangle of trees that line the river. Inside the forest it is easier going. They relax a little. But then an arrow shoots past them and embeds itself in a tree. The arrow has tiny flint blades in its tip.
They are under attack again. They begin to retreat and catch sight of the attacking warriors. They are women, fighters fiercer than any men they have ever encountered. They seem to have no fear. Why do they do not understand bullets, when all they have are arrows? Why do they not turn back?
Instead it is the Spaniards who turn and rush back to their boat, steering it quickly away from the bank and out of reach of these fearsome women. They press on. And still Francisco has no gold…
Many months later, when Francisco finally gets to the end of this mighty river and then finds a ship back to Spain, he tells this amazing story to his king. It reminds King Charles of the old Greek mythical warriors called the Amazons. The river had no name before, but he will now give it one – the river of ferocious women fighters, the Amazon.
And still Francisco has no gold. He asks the king if he can go back with another expedition. It is the lure of gold he will never find.
It is El Dorado.
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