Photo: The Ingá Stone, a possibly pre-Columbian set of petroglyphs found in Paraíba State, Brazil. It’s one of several pieces of evidence that the Amazon once held civilizations which were wiped out by disease after contact with Europe. Public Domain image by Jp. Juarez, from Wikimedia Commons.
from Passing Strangness
December 17, 2010
One of the many inexplicable statements in historical literature is Gaspar de Carvajal’s description of his travels down the Amazon River with Francisco de Orellana. He says in numerous ways that the banks of the Amazon were stuffed with people, literally village after village for most of its length. No-one else reported this. All subsequent expeditions found the Amazon Basin much as it is today—thinly inhabited. Indeed it had to be this way, as Amazonian soils are notoriously poor for farming. The tragedy of modern-day deforestation of the jungle there is that the poor Brazilian farmers doing the cutting end up with farms that can’t support them for more than a few years before the soil’s nutrients are gone. Even the native Amazonians have to resort to slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing an area then moving on after a while to let the soil recover rather than settling in villages. De Carvajal, like many early explorers, must have been embellishing his tale to the point of lying.
Except maybe not. . . . Read Complete Report
JUST FOR FUN: A virtual mini-vacation: Joao Pessoa – Paraiba – North East Region – Brazil
Uploaded by Brasmari on Sep 18, 2011
