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A friend highly recommended this book. He's pointed me to several interesting books over the years, but this was his best recommendation. After waiting for what seemed forever to get a copy, I read it overnight.

The Rivers Ran East is a great exploration story. I've been fascinated by the exploits of the great Victorian explorers, especially Sir Richard Francis Burton, for years. To me, Leonard Clark was probably the last of the Victorian-style explorers - facing the wilderness armed with few supplies, but inspired by a burning desire for exploration (with selfish reasons like gold thrown in for good measure).

Like some of the other reviewers, I want more information. The book's ending seemed to promise a continuation, but I guess it never happened. Some publisher needs to reprint this great book, complete with updates on "the rest of the story".

Clark,an American who helped engineer the resistance to the Japanese occupation of China, goes looking to the source of gold flowing to Spain from the new world. He finds the key in the archives of Spain. He travels alone into the interior of the Amazon river basing seeking the gold source. His guide abandons him the first day into the trek, leaving Clark armed only with his wits and a .38cal revolver. The story takes you into the vicious lifes of the head hunting Juarvo indian natives,..even as friends, they are deadly. To say more would give away the story. The reader gets a stark education of the ways of the not so primitive South American jungle inhabitants. Add to the mix a young Italian lady on a shadowing river boat, who is all to eager to assist him. But , in his quest, or demise. The book should be labelled as addictive to anyone who likes to read fast moving, hair raising non-fiction. REVIEWER NOTE: "The Rivers Ran East." is such a fantastic story that when it was published, no one took it seriously. Finally, two expedientions were mounted to follow Clark's footsteps. The first found that the indian resistance was even more formidable than Clark had reported and turned back. The second team found the gold, it is the richest gold strike in history. Their claim is said to the to be the "most expensive real estate on earth."

Having lived in the Amazon valley (Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, on the upper Rio Negro just south of the equator, and also on the Amazon near Manaus), for ten years, I find much of the book amusing. It is inconceivable that Clark is the only explorer that ran into more horrifying Indians, more snakes and other jungle creature out to get him than any other who had gone before him.

For example, Clark wasn't fond of swimming in the river because there were crocs on every shore, and flesh eating fish at every depth. Explorer Adrian Cowell (The Heart of the Forest), found nothing like this in all his travels and even snorkeled at the Xingu tribe he stayed with. Earlier, Earl Hanson in Journey to Manaos found most of the Indians quite curious. My sister has worked with tribal Indians in Brazil for 35 years and has never reported such savagery. The Indians are known for killing, but usually out of fear - not because they are simply mean.

Loren McIntyre paints a totally different picture of the Amazon and its people in Amazonia (Sierra Club). Don't forget Teddy Roosevelt. He had a great time on the Amazon. And finally, Alfred Wallace's Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1889), talks of Indians and fauna, but never had the problems Clark had.

It is my guess that Clark, knowing no one would be able to confirm or deny his wild tales, took poetic license and created a story that is a great read, but simply not totally factual. It is his vivid imagination that makes the journey even more exciting - but I was disappointed because I thought I was going to read a nice historical account of his travels and instead caught myself laughing to myself in disbelief.

I suppose I could be wrong. I've never been to the Amazon in the Peruvian headwaters. Life may be quite different there than the rest of the basin.