Case file · Folklore / legend
Gonzalo Pizarro and the Land of Cinnamon
In 1541 Gonzalo Pizarro led some 200 Spaniards and thousands of Indigenous porters east from Quito in search of 'La Canela', a fabled land of cinnamon forests, and of El Dorado beyond it.
1541 CE · -0.46, -76.99 · status: legend
The account
The expedition descended into the Napo and Coca basin (the point used here is modern Coca, Ecuador). Starving, Pizarro sent Orellana downriver for food; Orellana never returned and instead became the first European to travel the length of the Amazon.
The sceptical view
The 'cinnamon' was a local tree with a similar scent, scattered rather than in groves; most of the porters died.