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A list of famous Amazon explorers who risked it all to navigate the unknown of Earth’s greatest jungle.
Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana was attacked by Indian warriors led by women in the Amazon rainforest and survived. He later became the first European to navigate the entire Amazon in 1542 but lost an eye during earlier conquests. He also documented large cities and complex civilizations that vanished years later.
Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira sailed up and down the entire Amazon River in 1637-1639. This made him the first European to complete this journey. He led the mission with a massive expedition of 70 soldiers, several clergymen, and 1,200 indigenous people in 47 large canoes.
Samuel Fritz, a Jesuit missionary, created the first accurate map of the Amazon River in 1707 while establishing thirty-eight missions along its banks. He was later imprisoned for 18 months by Portuguese authorities who suspected him of being a Spanish spy.
Charles Marie de La Condamine conducted the first scientific exploration of the Amazon River in 1743. He wrote about its features and discovered that the people used rubber—which he introduced to European science by bringing samples back to France.
During his five-year expedition to the Americas (1799-1804), Alexander von Humboldt confirmed the existence of the Casiquiare canal in Venezuela, which connects the Amazon and Orinoco river systems—he also discovered electric eels that could kill horses.
German biologist Johann Baptist von Spix collected and cataloged hundreds of Amazon species during his 1817-1820 expedition. One of his most notable discoveries was a critically endangered Spix’s macaw—which he found while suffering from a tropical disease that would eventually kill him.
Henry Walter Bates spent eleven years exploring the Amazon rainforest (1848-1859), collecting over 14,000 species with8,000 new to science. Famously, he nursed a sick toucan back to health, which then became his intelligent and amusing companion, which was known for a precisely timed appetite.
Alfred Russel Wallace collected over 125,000 specimens during his Amazon exploration (1848-1852), though he tragically lost most of his collection when his ship caught fire. He was forced to spend ten days adrift in an open boat before rescue.
Richard Spruce spent fifteen years collecting and documenting Amazon plant specimens from 1849-1864. He was able to get viable cinchona seeds for quinine production in India, despite suffering devastating health problems and financial fraud that left him impoverished.
French explorer Paul Marcoy (alias Laurent de Saint-Cricq) meticulously documented the complex system of lakes and canals of the Rio Japura during his 1840-1847 Amazon expedition. He collected botanical specimens while surviving a bitter falling-out with fellow explorer Francis de Laporte de Castelnau.
French explorer Jules Crevaux mapped 3,400 kilometers of Amazonian rivers in 161 days during his third expedition.Sadly, he’d later be clubbed to death by the Toba people during a later journey after his Indigenous guide deliberately misled them.
During his 1913-1914 Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, Theodore Roosevelt nearly died from a tropical disease while exploring the previously uncharted 625-mile “River of Doubt” in the Amazon. He suffered a severe infection that caused him to lose 50 pounds and contemplate death with morphine.
Cândido Rondon built over 4,000 miles of telegraph lines through the Amazon rainforest while making peaceful contact with previously hostile Indigenous tribes—all while adhering to his strict personal motto: “Die if need be, never kill.”
British explorer Percy Fawcett mapped hundreds of miles of unexplored Amazon jungle between 1906 and 1924. He claimed to have encountered and shot a 62-foot anaconda—a report for which scientists ridiculed him.
Alexander H. Rice Jr. mapped 500,000 square miles of the Amazon Basin through seven expeditions. He once fended off what he described as an attack by “savages” where his team killed two indigenous people they falsely labeled as “cannibals.”
Adventurer Algot Lange survived a near-fatal arrow wound while documenting indigenous tribes along the Amazon River in 1910, discovering seventeen previously unknown species of orchids during his grueling 2,000-mile expedition.
Isabel Godin des Odonais survived a harrowing 3,000-mile Amazon expedition as the sole survivor of a 42-person party. She wandered alone for nine days through the jungle after watching her family members die from disease and starvation.
Fritz W. Up de Graff was an American adventurer who navigated the treacherous Pongo de Manseriche rapids in a simple canoe while exploring the Amazon basin from 1894-1901. He survived seven months lost in the jungle—three of them completely alone.
Mexican-American botanist Ynés Mexía navigated 4,800 kilometers down the Amazon River, collecting 65,000 plant specimens. She lived three months with the Araguarunas indigenous people despite beginning her botanical career at age 55.
In 1983, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau traveled to the Amazon River to film “The Enchanted River,” capturing indigenous cultures and aquatic ecosystems. He claimed to have experienced a bizarre phenomenon of pink river dolphins that would reportedly change into humans at night.
Loren McIntyre was an American photojournalist who discovered the furthermost source of the Amazon River in 1971. He said that he communicated telepathically with an “uncontacted” indigenous tribe that had captured him in the remote Javari Valley.
Ed Stafford became the first human to walk the entire length of the Amazon River in 2010. During his journey, he was arrested for murder when he coincidentally arrived in an isolated settlement the same day a community member went missing.
Kenneth Lee, an expert botanist, cataloged over 1,500 plant species during his 1973 Amazonian expedition, including the bizarre “electrical” Thottea tomentosa plant, which generates a lot of voltage when touched.
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