 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon is a two-volume publication by two young USN lieutenants William Lewis Herndon (vol. 1) and Lardner A. Gibbon (vol. 2). [1] Herndon split the main party in two so that he and Gibbon could explore two different areas of the Valley of the Amazon.
In 1851, William Lewis Herndon was ordered to head an expedition exploring the Valley of the Amazon – a vast uncharted area. Departing Lima, Peru, 21 May 1851, Lieut. Herndon, Lieut. Lardner Gibbon, and a small party of six men pressed into the wild and treacherously beautiful jungles. They split up and took different routes to gather even more information on this vast area. After a journey of 4,366 miles (7,026 km), which took Herndon through the wilderness from sea level to heights of 16,199 feet (4,937 m), Herndon reached the city of Pará, Brazil on 11 April 1852. On 26 January 1853, Herndon submitted an encyclopedic and profusely illustrated 414-page report to the Secretary of the Navy, John P. Kennedy. The report was later published as Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.
The two volumes, one written by Lieutenant Herndon and the other by Lieutenant Gibbon, were so unusual at that time and of such importance that in an unusual move, it was immediately ordered, "10,000 additional copies be printed for the use of the Senate." Three months later, another 20,000 copies were ordered; the book became an international best-seller. [2]
Their orders were to report on all possible conditions in the Amazon region that they would each have to traverse alone from Lima, Peru on the Pacific coast to Para, Brazil, the mouth of the Amazon. The two volumes were published by presidential order.
32D CONGRESS, } SENATE {EXECUTIVE 2d Session No. 36.
EXPLORATION OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON,
MADE UNDER DIRECTION OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT,
BY
WM. LEWIS HERNDON AND LARDNER GIBBON, LIEUTENANTS UNITED STATES NAVY.
PART I. BY LIEUT. HERNDON.
WASHINGTON: ROBERT ARMSTRONG, PUBLIC PRINTER.
1853.
LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY,
COMMUNICATING
A Report of an Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, made by Lieut. Herndon, in connection with Lieut. Gibbon.
FEBRUARY 10, 1853. — Referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs and ordered to be printed.
MARCH 3, 1853. — ordered that 10,000 additional copies be printed for the use of the Senate.
To the Senate and House of Representatives.
I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by the first part of Lieut. Herndon's Report of the Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, made by him, in connection with Lieut. Lardner Gibbon, under instructions from the Navy Department.
MILLARD FILLMORE. WASHINGTON, February 9, 1853.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, February, 1853.
To the President:
SIR, In compliance with the notice given in the annual report of this department to the President, and communicated to Congress at the opening of its present session, I have the honor herewith to submit the first part of the Report of Lieut. Herndon, of the Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, made by him, in connection with Lieut. Lardner Gibbon, under instructions from this department, dated the 15th of February, 1851.
I am happy to be able to inform you that Lieut. Gibbon reached Pará on his homeward journey some weeks ago, and may very soon be expected to arrive in the United States. When he returns, Lieut. Herndon will have all the materials necessary to complete his report, and will devote himself to that labor with the same assiduity which has characterized his present work.
I would respectfully beg leave to suggest that, in submitting this report to the House of Representatives, it be accompanied with a request to that body, if it should think proper to direct the printing of this valuable document, that the order for that purpose may include all the remaining portions of the report which may hereafter be furnished; and that the order for printing shall include a suitable direction for the engraving and publication of the maps, charts, and sketches, which will be furnished as necessary illustrations of the subjects treated of in the report.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your obedient servant,
JOHN P. KENNEDY.
WASHINGTON CITY, January 26, 1853.
To the Hon. JOHN P. KENNEDY, Secretary of the Navy.
SIR: I have the honor to submit part first of the Report of an Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, made by me, with the assistance of Lieut. Lardner Gibbon, under instructions of the Navy Department, bearing date February 15, 1851.
The desire expressed by the department for an early report of my exploration of the Amazon, and the general interest manifested in the public mind with regard to the same, have induced me to lay before you at once as full an account of our proceedings as can be made before the return of my companion. The general map which accompanies the report is based upon maps published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , but corrected and improved according to my own personal observations, and information obtained by me whilst in that country.
The final report of the expedition will be submitted as soon after Lieut. Gibbon's return as practicable. I am in daily expectation of intelligence from him. At the latest accounts (26 July 1852) he was at Trinidad de Moxos, on the Mamoré, in the Republic of Bolivia, making his preparations for the descent of the Madeira.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
WM. LEWIS HERNDON,
LIEUT. U. S. NAVY.
Herndon is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. In 2020, the population at the census was 24,655, which makes it the largest of three incorporated towns in the county.
The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The medal was established on July 2, 1926, and is currently awarded to any persons who, after April 6, 1917, distinguish themselves by single acts of heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Both heroism and extraordinary achievement are entirely distinctive, involving operations that are not routine. The medal may be awarded to friendly foreign military members in ranks equivalent to the U.S. paygrade of O-6 and below in combat in support operations.
Matthew Fontaine Maury was an American oceanographer and naval officer, serving the United States and then joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
George Frank Elliott was a United States Marine Corps major general. He was the tenth Commandant of the Marine Corps between 1903 and 1910.
Isaac Grier Strain, an American midshipman. At age 17 he joined the U.S. Navy to apprentice at sea.
John Gibbon was a career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.
The first USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was named for the San Jacinto River, site of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861.
Elisha Kent Kane was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer. He served as assistant surgeon during Caleb Cushing's journey to China to negotiate the Treaty of Wangxia and in the Africa Squadron. He was assigned as a special envoy to the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and as a surveyor in the United States Coast Survey.
Captain William Levereth Hudson, USN was a United States Navy officer in the first half of the 19th century.
Henry Lewis Hulbert was a United States Marine who served during the Second Samoan Civil War and World War I. As a private, he received the Medal of Honor for distinguished service in Samoa on April 1, 1899.
James Taylor Lewis was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 9th Governor of Wisconsin (1864–1866). Prior to his election as governor, he was the 7th Secretary of State of Wisconsin (1862–1864) and the 4th Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin (1854–1856), and served one year each in the Wisconsin State Senate (1853) and Assembly (1852).
Commander William Lewis Herndon was one of the United States Navy's outstanding explorers and seamen. In 1851 he led a United States expedition to the Valley of the Amazon, and prepared a report published in 1854 and distributed widely as Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.
Piassava, also piaçava, piaçaba, piasaba, pissaba, piassaba, and piaçá, is a fibrous product of Brazilian palm species Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia piassaba. It is often used in making brooms and for other purposes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers was a branch of the United States Army authorized on 4 July 1838. It consisted only of officers who were handpicked from West Point and was used for mapping and the design and construction of federal civil works such as lighthouses and other coastal fortifications and navigational routes. Members included such officers as George Meade, John C. Frémont, Thomas J. Cram and Stephen Long. It was merged with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on 31 March 1863, at which point the Corps of Engineers also assumed the Lakes Survey for the Great Lakes. In the mid-19th century, Corps of Engineers' officers ran Lighthouse Districts in tandem with U.S. Naval officers.
John Randolph Clay was an American diplomat.
Camp Abbot was a military training center in the northwest United States, located in central Oregon south of Bend. Active for less than sixteen months, the U.S. Army camp was used to train combat engineers during World War II and was named for Henry Larcom Abbot.
The Keyesville massacre was a mass killing which occurred on April 19, 1863, in Tulare County, California during the Owens Valley Indian War. A mixed force consisting of American settlers and a detachment of the United States Army's 2nd California Cavalry Regiment under Captain Moses A. McLaughlin killed 35 indigenous Californians from the Tübatulabal and Mono peoples "about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River".
The 1854 Beckwith Expedition by Lieutenant Edward Griffin Beckwith surveyed an area that was subsequently used for the Western Pacific's 1910 Feather River Route.
Cadwalader Ringgold was an officer in the United States Navy who served in the United States Exploring Expedition, later headed an expedition to the Northwest and, after initially retiring, returned to service during the Civil War.
