Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, Part 1 (of 2)

In 1851, Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon received orders that would consume the next year of his life: to explore the Valley of the Amazon, a region so vast and uncharted that virtually no reliable information existed about it. Departing Lima, Peru with a small party of six men, Herndon embarked on a 4,366-mile journey that would take him from the Pacific coast, through the treacherous Andes, and down to the mouth of the Amazon at Pará, Brazil. He traversed terrain ranging from sea-level jungles to heights of 16,199 feet, braving disease, dangerous rivers, and the sheer isolation of wilderness that had barely seen Western footprints. Together with Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon, who took a separate route to gather additional data, Herndon produced an encyclopedic account of the region's geography, indigenous peoples, natural resources, and commercial potential. His report was so remarkable that when submitted to the Secretary of the Navy in 1853, President Millard Fillmore ordered 10,000 copies printed for the Senate. Three months later, another 20,000 copies were commissioned. The book became an instant international best-seller, and for good reason: this is the document that introduced the Western world to the Amazon's staggering scale and beauty.