The Expedition of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre in Search of El Dorado and Omagua in 1560–1: Translated from Fray Pedro Simon's Sixth Historical ... Library Collection - Hakluyt First Series)

by Pedro Simón, William Bollaert (Translator)

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1861 volume contains a translation, preceded by an introductory essay, of a narrative by Pedro Sim�n (b. 1565) describing perhaps the most notorious of the many sixteenth-century expeditions of European soldiers of fortune into the unexplored areas of South America. A band of quarrelling and murderous booty-hunters, motivated by reports of the fabulous wealth of the Inca empire and legends of the golden land of El Dorado, was led by Lope de Aguirre, whose cruelty and treachery themselves became legendary.

Genres: History

318 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1971

Reviews

[John Locke]

It’s hard to imagine one man wrecking so much death and destruction— not on the indigenous peoples of South America, although he shared in that carnage as well— but amongst his own countrymen... and women. A paranoid narcissist with delusions of grandeur... just the kind of person you’d want to be in charge of 200 blood-thirsty, gold-hungry adventurers.

The book was written a long time ago, and it’s very short on description. Even so, it doesn’t take much imagination to fill in the drama that the historical log neglects.

My reason for reading this account was to find inspiration for my next historical novel, and there is plenty here upon which to draw. Good riddance to Lope de Aguirre. May his soul suffer the torments he inflicted on so many others.