Spanish soldier, one of the conquerors of Peru and the first explorer of the Amazon River; born in Truxillo. He was one of Pizarro’s lieutenants in the conquest of Peru, and was a member of the El Dorado expedition of 1539. He was sent ahead of this expedition with a brigantine to secure supplies, probably in April 1541, and, on arriving at the junction of the Napo and Marañon, he continued on down the latter river. In the course of the voyage the Indians told him of a tribe of female warriors, or Amazons, and he claimed to have encountered them, from which story the Amazon River received its name. He reached the mouth of the Amazon late in 1541, and sailed therefrom, first to Trinidad and thence to Spain, where he received a grant to conquer the country discovered by him. He sailed on his return voyage to do so in 1544, but failed in his attempt, and retreated to Venezuela, where he died in 1546.
