Since its discovery by Europeans in 1500, explorers, visionaries, soldiers of fortune, men of God, scientists, and slavers have been drawn to the legendary Amazon. The River Sea is a sweeping chronicle of those brave souls, ranging form the Spanish seafarer Vicente Pinzon, who discovered the river, to contemporary heroes and heroines, like Sister Dorothy Stang and Chico Mendes, whose efforts to save the rain forest cost them their lives.

Among others in this vast cast of characters who people the drama of the Amazon is Francisco de Orellana, the first European to traverse the river...