The Rivers Ran East

Leonard Clark is perhaps not as well known as other explorers of his era, but this former US Army intelligence officer writes well about his gutsy and risky expedition in the Peruvian jungle in the headwaters of the Amazon. In June 1954, Clark departs Lima with his Peruvian companion Jorge, and they begin their epic (I spent some time on Google Maps tracing the journey shown on the 4 (very good (for a change)) maps in this book - and the distance covered is incredible!) journey, mostly by raft or canoe.

In December (24th to be exact) Clark and Ines Pokorny, an American woman, emerged from the jungle to a town called Bella Vista (no longer called this) and caught a bus to Quito, Ecuador. They had with them 30 pounds of gold, in bamboo tubes. This was what remained of the 50 pounds they had obtained but due to the death of the mule that was transporting it, they had buried what they were unable to carry. The market rate (2022) for their gold is a tidy USD2.25M, yet they were (unsurprisingly) ripped off and received USD$16,000 - a lot less than the price they agreed with the broker, who skipped out across the Colombian border!

So, what happened in the six months between these two events? So much.

From the beginning, Clark had kept his ambitions to locate El Dorado secret and this was the main reason he succeeded - well that and Ines Pokorny. Jorge and the Peruvian military, the many traders and patrones along the way all believed Clarks cover story (although it was also true), that he was collecting information on Jungle-Indian pharmaceuticals - traditional medicines and cures. To do this he had to get far from the tame Indians on the jungle fringes. He had to journey deep into the jungle and to achieve this he planned his route from La Merced along the Perene River and the Tambo River, all the way to Atalaya. From there the Ucayali River awaited, and they were to follow this to Iquitos.

The book is highly descriptive. Clark shares everything, apparently holding nothing back from the reader, sharing his plans freely in a manner not done on his journey. At Pucalpa (Pucallpa, as it is now spelled) Jorge learns from a letter that awaited him, that his elder brother has died in an accident and he must urgently return home to deal with his family. He promises to rejoin Clark at Iquitos. Clark is able to make a deal with the Military to fly him on to Iquitos, although on the way they passed over Requena, a Ucayali town which had been undergoing a siege for over a year by the Blanco River Indians, where they air-dropped some supplies!

It is in Iquitos, while awaiting Jorge and trying to decide how to make his journey upriver (up the Maranon River, then cross the Andes to make his way to Quito) that he received word that Jorge was unable to return, as he was needed to lead his family and run their extensive estates.

While dining with ex-pats in Iquitos Clark first meets Ines Pokorny - a fellow American seeking adventure. She is an explorer, with uncommon abilities with languages - already able to speak the Indian dialect upriver. A mutual friend suggested he take her along - something he treated as a joke, even as she prepared equipment and made plans over the next few days. Eventually he caught on that she was serious and he did his best to refuse her accompaniment, and then reluctantly agreed she could join him on the launch taking him a short way up the Rio Maranon. Ines absolutely refused to return by launch and so they set off, still against Clark's better judgement.

However Ines proved a more than worthy companion. She had a gift for communication, able to build rapport with the Indians, show that the two of them were non-threatening and obtain food from them. She refused to complain about the biting insects, the hard work, the poor conditions and the constant fear of the wild animals and the Indians.

They bartered with what small goods they had carried for upriver transport. They hunted where they could and they befriended the Jivaro headhunters. Against all odds, they reached Borja, a long way upriver. Along the way Clark made the decision to tell Inez that he actually sought El Dorado. She amazed him, by confiding that she was also hunting gold, and that in fact she represented a consortium who had taken out mining rights and was looking for confirmation that gold was there. This amazed Clark, and he was now well convinced of her abilities and the fact she not only didn't hinder his progress, but that he probably wouldn't have go so far without her!

At Borja, the military, who until then had been helpful suddenly became prohibitive, ordering them back downriver. It took evasiveness to even remain in Borja a short time, and more to covertly get upriver. It turned out that this was because the local commander was involved in the search for gold with some locals, and they feared the explorers might stumble on something.

It is probably overdue that I explain Clark's version of El Dorado. It is no city of gold, built by Incas with the streets paved in gold. In Clark's explanation, the fabled seven cities of gold are El Dorado, and the cities in question are the villages, or towns which supported the seven mines of El Dorado, These were Spanish operated. Long gone are the Spanish towns, but the mines (some of which are waterways which are mined) remain, and some are worked by the Indians who take modest amounts of gold to traders to buy weapons, tools and the like.

Of the ‘seven cities' Clark and Ines physically locate six (their evidence is stone building foundations) and are told of the location of the seventh but are warned away from approaching closer by the Indians. They physically recover gold only from one mine (the 50 pounds mentioned above), this being the limit they are able to transport - although this even becomes too much load.

Clarks story is without doubt amazing, and there were likely few days that this journey could have prematurely ended, with Clark's head ending up like so many of the shrunken ones they saw. Some reviews question the likelihood of this story being true, suggesting a wild fiction. I don't know about that, but there can be little doubt that if it is all true Clark had a hell of a lot of good luck. There are good photographs (although not many) and the maps, as I mentioned above are uncommonly good.

Around the midpoint, I though this book was getting a bit slow, but it pulled clear of that brief lethargy and I ended up enjoying it a great deal.

5 stars