Explorers of the Amazon

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating romp across South America
Review: I have read and re-read this wonderful account of the history of Amazonian exploration since the hardcover edition first came out in 1990. Anthony Smith, an inveterate science writer, writes with warmth and humor as he describes the very first European travels down this mighty waterway, those of the Spaniards Don Francisco de Orellana and the notorious Lope de Aguirre (the subject of Werner Herzog's 1972 movie "Aguirre, Wrath of God") and the Portugese navigator Pedro Teixeira. Next came the scientists, including la Condamine and von Humboldt followed in the latter nineteenth century by a bevy of entrepeneurs who expropriated rubber and other commodities from the rainforest. A well-written book on a fascinating subject!

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating romp across South America
Review: I have read and re-read this wonderful account of the history of Amazonian exploration since the hardcover edition first came out in 1990. Anthony Smith, an inveterate science writer, writes with warmth and humor as he describes the very first European travels down this mighty waterway, those of the Spaniards Don Francisco de Orellana and the notorious Lope de Aguirre (the subject of Werner Herzog's 1972 movie "Aguirre, Wrath of God") and the Portugese navigator Pedro Teixeira. Next came the scientists, including la Condamine and von Humboldt followed in the latter nineteenth century by a bevy of entrepeneurs who expropriated rubber and other commodities from the rainforest. A well-written book on a fascinating subject!