Orellana was an interesting man, to say the least. He was a linguistic genius who kept an evolving dictionary of all the native tongues he encountered beginning with his departure from Peru with one of the Pizzaro brothers. By the time he started down the Amazon, he already had a working knowledge of most of the dialects he encountered. At one point, deep within the Amazon basin, he put ashore to replenish his supplies and build a second ship. With amazing speed and aptitude, he picked up enough of the native language to speak with the local chief and obtain permission to stay long enough for the work to be completed. He and his men then set up a forge, and began turning horseshoes into nails and fittings for their new ship. In the meantime, word spread of these strange white men with odd habits and the ability to work iron, and delegations from other tribes came from all over the Amazon to see for themselves. Orellana wrote of the wide ethnic diversity of those who came to visit, with some being tall and fair skinned and remarkably civilized. Orellana and his men stayed for a month and then shoved off.
It was more than a generation before anyone else came down the Amazon, but they found almost nothing where Orellana had remarked on the astonishing variety of cultures he passed by. Disease had wiped them out, and I think even today we have no idea what existed there. River of Darkness