ORELLANA, FRANCISCO, the first European navigator of the River Amazon, was born at Truxillo in Spain about the beginning of the sixteenth century. While still a young man, he emigrated to the recently-discovered continent of America. His services were first employed by Francisco Pizarro in the successful expedition against Peru in 1531. He then joined a band of adventurers who, under the command of Gonzalez Pizarro, the brother of the Peruvian conqueror, were bent upon carrying European discovery into the interior of the continent. Starting from Quito, the capital of the republic of Ecuador, the explorers with exceeding difficulty reached the course of the Napo, a tributary of the Marañon. Famine compelled them to stop. Through the energy and courage of Orellana a vessel was built, manned, and despatched down the river, under his command, to procure provisions. No sooner had he sailed away, than he formed the bold resolution of continuing the expedition on his own responsibility, and with the force now under his command. At length, in August 1541, the solitary crew, after they had measured a continent, and encountered the most unheard-of privations, came in sight of the open ocean. Orellana took the first opportunity of hastening to Spain to recount his adventures. The government believed his accounts of the tribe of female warriors that dwelt by the river he had discovered, and of the temples roofed with gold that he had seen. Accordingly the river was called the Amazon; and a commission was given to the discoverer to establish colonies in this new "El Dorado." Orellana returned, only to die, in 1549.