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The delta region of the Amazon may have been discovered by Vicente Yˆhnez Pinzˆun in 1500, but exploration did not begin until 154-41, when an expedition led by Francisco de Orellana started down the Napo River, in what is now Ecuador, and reached the Atlantic Ocean. Pedro Teixeira undertook the first upstream voyage. Between October 1637 and August 1638 he ascended the Amazon to the source of the Napo River and crossed the Andes to Quito, Ecuador. Later, he returned by the same route. In modern times the river has been explored by many scientific expeditions, including that led (1914) by Theodore Roosevelt and others sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the government of Brazil. Some authorities believe that the river was named after the Amazons, women warriors of Greek mythology who were thought to reside in the region; other scholars insist that the name is derived from the Native American word amassona ("boat destroyer"). Despite centuries of effort to overcome the dominance of nature, people have made little impact on the Amazon and most of its vast drainage basin. No bridge spans the river. Except near its mouth, the Amazon watershed constitutes one of the most thinly populated regions in the world. Much of the territory drained by the river system has never been thoroughly explored. One may fly for hours over the tropical forests that cover much of the river's floodplain and see no sign of human settlement. In many stream valleys, Native American tribes hostile to strangers continue to live much as they did before the arrival of the Europeans. Most commerce is narrowly confined to the navigable sectors of the river system. The economy continues to be dominated by primitive agriculture, hunting and fishing, and the gathering of various forest products. Commercial farming, tourism, and industry play only a minor role in the region, but mining and lumbering, the principal economic activities, are increasingly important. In the 1980s Brazil, under pressure from international conservation groups, started to ensure that efforts to develop the Amazon did not irrevocably compromise the nation's forest resources. [Top]