The Emptied Amazon · source record · paper

Entre a história antiga amazônica e seu presente etnográfico: colonialismo e persistências nas trajetórias indígenas de longa duração do médio Solimões, Amazonas

Filippo A. Lopes; Fernando O. Almeida; Eduardo Tamanaha; Eduardo G. Neves; Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas · 2024

AI-verified citationSRC-LOPES-2024

identifier / locator: Bol. Mus. Para. Emílio Goeldi, Ciências Humanas 19(2) e20230072, doi:10.1590/2178-2547-BGOELDI-2023-0072
url: https://www.scielo.br/j/bgoeldi/a/X3HNVnzSJf6nS4yRLw4fHxC/?format=html
verification note: Fetched natively 2026-08-28 and re-fetched for correction: the Nunes/Ursúa passages were checked verbatim, and the title/authors here are taken from the article's own citation block. CORRECTION (2026-08-28, caught by the arbiter panel's mechanical DOI check): this record originally carried an invented descriptive title that did not match the DOI — the DOI and quoted content were correct throughout; the title was wrong and is now the paper's real one. Content notes: Nunes's testimony is a letter of 1553 or 1554 to João III (via Porro's modern edition) — not a published account; fortifications/organized warfare do NOT appear as Ursúa-account observations here; the turtle-corral description is Acuña (1891), not the Ursúa accounts.

Evidence drawn from this source

Supports· strongAMZ-E007

what the source states: "Diogo Nunes alcança a província de Machiparo em 1538, invadindo aldeias e capturando indígenas… Em 1560, seria a vez da expedição de Pedro de Ursúa… contando com dez relatos, sendo os de Vazquez, Almesto e Altamirano os mais completos." The accounts describe the middle Solimões as "uma das áreas mais densamente habitadas do rio-mar"; maize stores among the Yaguamales as "infinita"; straight roads "mui largos e bons, que eram ao modo dos Incas do Peru, exceto pelas paredes"; and turtle/fish abundance "na casa dos milhares."
what we infer: Independent witnesses, hostile to one another and writing for different crowns, repeat the mundane load-bearing features of Carvajal's picture. None of them repeats his extreme numbers.
limitations: Nunes's testimony survives as a letter of 1553/54 known through Porro's modern edition.
Fortifications and organized warfare are NOT among the verified common elements; the turtle-corral detail belongs to Acuña (1639).