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Summary: The Rivers Ran East by Leonard Clark
Review: A fantastic adventure story from an Author who apparently fears nothing. Very detailed and factual with photographs to back up his story. I would also like to learn more about this author and have only found that he wrote an article for National Geographic in 1938 about Hainan Island and it's inhabitants. That story was written in the same style. Mr. Clark was(?) indeed an aventurous soul.
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Summary: Can't Believe It's Out of Print
Review: A friend highly recommended this book. He's pointed me to several interesting books over the years, but this was his best recommendation. After waiting for what seemed forever to get a copy, I read it overnight. The Rivers Ran East is a great exploration story. I've been fascinated by the exploits of the great Victorian explorers, especially Sir Richard Francis Burton, for years. To me, Leonard Clark was probably the last of the Victorian-style explorers - facing the wilderness armed with few supplies, but inspired by a burning desire for exploration (with selfish reasons like gold thrown in for good measure). Like some of the other reviewers, I want more information. The book's ending seemed to promise a continuation, but I guess it never happened. Some publisher needs to reprint this great book, complete with updates on "the rest of the story".
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Summary: If it were any more graphic, you would have mosquito bites.
Review: A very credible, former USArmy officer, follows rumors of gold in South America and tells his high adventure story in a captivating, chillingly honest, and unflinching way that tempts the reader to follow his trail. Only fear, and common sense, holds you back. Good reading: good discription of the Indian of South America, and the frequently obtuse way they are best approached. If you like "Indiana Jones", you'll like this.
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Summary: The true tale of a successful search for spain's gold!
Review: Clark,an American who helped engineer the resistance to the Japanese occupation of China, goes looking to the source of gold flowing to Spain from the new world. He finds the key in the archives of Spain. He travels alone into the interior of the Amazon river basing seeking the gold source. His guide abandons him the first day into the trek, leaving Clark armed only with his wits and a .38cal revolver. The story takes you into the vicious lifes of the head hunting Juarvo indian natives,..even as friends, they are deadly. To say more would give away the story. The reader gets a stark education of the ways of the not so primitive South American jungle inhabitants. Add to the mix a young Italian lady on a shadowing river boat, who is all to eager to assist him. But , in his quest, or demise. The book should be labelled as addictive to anyone who likes to read fast moving, hair raising non-fiction. REVIEWER NOTE: "The Rivers Ran East." is such a fantastic story that when it was published, no one took it seriously. Finally, two expedientions were mounted to follow Clark's footsteps. The first found that the indian resistance was even more formidable than Clark had reported and turned back. The second team found the gold, it is the richest gold strike in history. Their claim is said to the to be the "most expensive real estate on earth."
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Summary: A little poetic license...
Review: Having lived in the Amazon valley (Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, on the upper Rio Negro just south of the equator, and also on the Amazon near Manaus), for ten years, I find much of the book amusing. It is inconceivable that Clark is the only explorer that ran into more horrifying Indians, more snakes and other jungle creature out to get him than any other who had gone before him. For example, Clark wasn't fond of swimming in the river because there were crocs on every shore, and flesh eating fish at every depth. Explorer Adrian Cowell (The Heart of the Forest), found nothing like this in all his travels and even snorkeled at the Xingu tribe he stayed with. Earlier, Earl Hanson in Journey to Manaos found most of the Indians quite curious. My sister has worked with tribal Indians in Brazil for 35 years and has never reported such savagery. The Indians are known for killing, but usually out of fear - not because they are simply mean. Loren McIntyre paints a totally different picture of the Amazon and its people in Amazonia (Sierra Club). Don't forget Teddy Roosevelt. He had a great time on the Amazon. And finally, Alfred Wallace's Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1889), talks of Indians and fauna, but never had the problems Clark had. It is my guess that Clark, knowing no one would be able to confirm or deny his wild tales, took poetic license and created a story that is a great read, but simply not totally factual. It is his vivid imagination that makes the journey even more exciting - but I was disappointed because I thought I was going to read a nice historical account of his travels and instead caught myself laughing to myself in disbelief. I suppose I could be wrong. I've never been to the Amazon in the Peruvian headwaters. Life may be quite different there than the rest of the basin.
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Summary: A little poetic license...
Review: Having lived in the Amazon valley (Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, on the upper Rio Negro just south of the equator, and also on the Amazon near Manaus), for ten years, I find much of the book amusing. It is inconceivable that Clark is the only explorer that ran into more horrifying Indians, more snakes and other jungle creature out to get him than any other who had gone before him. For example, Clark wasn't fond of swimming in the river because there were crocs on every shore, and flesh eating fish at every depth. Explorer Adrian Cowell (The Heart of the Forest), found nothing like this in all his travels and even snorkeled at the Xingu tribe he stayed with. Earlier, Earl Hanson in Journey to Manaos found most of the Indians quite curious. My sister has worked with tribal Indians in Brazil for 35 years and has never reported such savagery. The Indians are known for killing, but usually out of fear - not because they are simply mean. Loren McIntyre paints a totally different picture of the Amazon and its people in Amazonia (Sierra Club). Don't forget Teddy Roosevelt. He had a great time on the Amazon. And finally, Alfred Wallace's Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1889), talks of Indians and fauna, but never had the problems Clark had. It is my guess that Clark, knowing no one would be able to confirm or deny his wild tales, took poetic license and created a story that is a great read, but simply not totally factual. It is his vivid imagination that makes the journey even more exciting - but I was disappointed because I thought I was going to read a nice historical account of his travels and instead caught myself laughing to myself in disbelief. I suppose I could be wrong. I've never been to the Amazon in the Peruvian headwaters. Life may be quite different there than the rest of the basin.
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Summary: There are no better adventure stories
Review: I read this book many years ago and am now hoping to find copies for young friends just now poking their way into the world. I am very disappointed this book is out of print -- I have read countless adventure stories and none excedes this in excitment, "exoticness" and amazement. If there is a copy in your local library -- read it.
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Summary: The Rivers Ran East
Review: I recently finished reading the book, The Rivers Ran East, by Leonard Clark, who just happens to be my uncle. What a great story! It was written in the 1950's when I was just a little girl and I grew up hearing exciting stories about my adventuresome uncle. He sure can tell an fascinating tale! The book has been out of print in English for quite some time, so it is exciting to see that it has been republished. Because of the vivid descriptions, you really feel as though you are there with him in the jungle.
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Summary: The Rivers Ran East
Review: I recently finished reading the book, The Rivers Ran East, by Leonard Clark, who just happens to be my uncle. What a great story! It was written in the 1950's when I was just a little girl and I grew up hearing exciting stories about my adventuresome uncle. He sure can tell an fascinating tale! The book has been out of print in English for quite some time, so it is exciting to see that it has been republished. Because of the vivid descriptions, you really feel as though you are there with him in the jungle.
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Summary: The most thrilling true adventure I've ever read
Review: I still vividly remember when and how I discovered this treasure of a book (years ago, at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh). It was the most incredible true adventure I had ever read, and it still is. I have read it repeatedly over the years; somehow the story is always fresh and exciting.
Leonard Clark was a former intelligence officer and a first-class explorer when he set his sights on the fabled land of gold, El Dorado. He started his journey in Lima, Peru, in 1946, with a thousand dollars and a very old Spanish parchment map of El Dorado. One one person was going to accompany him: Jorge Mendoza, a young, college-educated Peruvian who spoke perfect English.
Everyone in Lima remotely acquainted with the area Clark proposed to travel warned him not to go. Much of his path was through completely unexplored and impenetrable jungle territory, where people were regularly murdered or disappeared. Compounding the difficulty was the political situation in Peru, which forced Clark to take a very long and indirect route. He had to first travel east from Lima to Iquitos, then travel west to Borja and Bella Vista, in order to reach El Dorado. His 'cover' was that he was looking for medical secrets of the Indian brujos (witchmen). He did indeed discover amazing jungle remedies, many of which he brought back with him.
The constant stress of heat and humidity; the threat of attacks by headhunting and cannibalistic Indians; insect bites (some of which could blind a man); dangers from wild animals, including enormous man-eating snakes -- and over it all, the incessant sounds of the jungle -- were nearly unendurable for the two men. Every single page in this book is captivating, packed with sounds and smells and images of the jungle that linger in your memory.
About two-thirds of the way through the story, before they reached Iquitos, Jorge's brother died, and he left to head his family's estates -- leaving Clark alone. Inez Pokorny, an American woman who had already traveled for eight months on her way up the Amazon, accompanied Clark on the rest of his journey, from Iquitos west. Her help was inestimable; he described her as 'the best friend any explorer ever had.'
Clark's journey and its culmination surpass any adventure fiction. This is a remarkable book -- describing not just an amazing treasure hunt, but one of the finest pieces of exploration in the Amazon Valley.
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