Editing Francisco de Orellana (section)

==Historical chronicles==
{{See also|Gaspar de Carvajal#The Relación and Carvajal's mark on history|label 1 = Carvajal's Relación}}
[[File:Monumento a Francisco de Orellana, Guápulo.jpg|thumb|Francisco de Orellana Monument at [[Guápulo]], point of departure to the Amazon (from [[Quito]])]]

[[Gaspar de Carvajal]], the chaplain of the first expedition, wrote a chronicle ''Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana'' (''Chronicle of the new discovery of the famous Great river discovered by great good fortune by Captain Francisco de Orellana'') which was partly reproduced in [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]]'s ''Historia general y natural de las Indias'', initially published in 1526 but continually revised until the author's death in 1557,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/historia-general-y-natural-de-las-indias-islas-y-tierrafirme-del-mar-oceano-primera-parte--0/html/014747fa-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_4.htm |title=Historia general y natural de las Indias |first=Gonzalo |last=Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés |author-link=Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés |editor=José Amador de los Ríos |editor-link=José Amador de los Ríos |publisher=La Real Acadameia de La Historia |date=1851 |location=[[Madrid]] |work=[[Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carrillo|first=Jesús|date=2002|title=The 'Historia General y Natural de las Indias' by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo|journal=Huntington Library Quarterly|volume=65|issue=3/4|pages=321–344|issn=0018-7895|jstor=3817978}}</ref> who included in addition statements by Orellana and some of his men. Carvajal's manuscript was published in 1894 by the Chilean [[historian]] [[José Toribio Medina]], preceded by a biography of Carvajal, in his book ''Descubrimiento del río de las Amazonas''.<ref name=carvajal>{{cite book |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/03697390899115328732268/p0000007.htm#I_60_ |title=Historiadores y cronistas de las misiones |chapter=Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río grande que descubrió por muy grande ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana según la transcripción de don Toribio Medina|first=José |last=Toribio Medina |author-link=José Toribio Medina |editor=Julio Tobar Donoso |publisher=Biblioteca Ecuatoriana Minima |location=[[Quito]] |date=1942 |pages=423–471 |website=[[Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library]]}} Including transcription of contemporaneous manuscript chronicle of the expedition by Carvajal.</ref>

The BBC documentary ''[[Unnatural Histories (TV series)|Unnatural Histories]]'' presents evidence that Carvajal's chronicle, rather than being a hugely exaggerated fantasy as previously thought, was correct in its observations that a civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. It is believed that the civilization was later devastated by the [[Native American disease and epidemics|spread of smallpox and other diseases from Europe]].<ref name=bbc>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0122njp|title=Unnatural Histories – Amazon|date=23 June 2011|publisher=BBC Four}}</ref> The evidence to support this claim comes from the discovery of numerous [[geoglyph]]s dating from between 1 and 1250&nbsp;AD, and ''[[terra preta]]'' resulting from indigenous activities.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html|title=Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon's Lost World|author=Simon Romero|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 14, 2012}}</ref> Some five million people may have lived in the Amazon region in 1500 in dense riverbank settlements such as that at [[Marajoara culture|Marajó]], and inland.<ref name=park>{{cite book|title=Tropical Rainforests|author=Chris C. Park|page=108|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415062398|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WQf6RZAiKcC&pg=PA108}}</ref> By 1900 the population had fallen to one million, and by the early 1980s it was fewer than 200,000.<ref name=park />