insight, such compassion and wit, and such literary grace that he came to symbolize the new spirit of exploration and discovery sweeping mid-nineteenth-century America. For the next hundred years, Herndon's report languished out of print before being revived briefly in 1951. Now, for the first time in nearly fifty years, Gary Kinder and Grove Press bring to readers one of the greatest chronicles of travel and exploration ever written.Editorial Reviews From Library JournalHerndon, a U.S Navy captain, was ordered by the government to explore the Amazon in 1851 and write down his observations. Within a year he and his group had traveled more than 4000 miles by canoe, by mule, and often on foot at the peril of disease, hostiles, and being chomped by snakes (and today's trekkers carp because they can't plug in their hair dryers). His notes proved so marvelously written that the Secretary of the Navy ordered 10,000 copies printed. They went fast, and 20,000 more followed. About the AuthorHerndon sacrificed his life in 1857, trying to save six hundred passengers and crew when his ship, the Central America, foundered in a hurricane off the Carolina coast. Naval officers erected a monument to his memory, which still stands at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title._________________________Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon by William Lewis Herndon e Lardner Gibbon. 1 ed. 18531853. First Edition. HERNDON, William Lewis and GIBBON, Lardner. Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, Made under Direction of the Navy Department. Washington: Robert Armstrong; A.O.P. Nicholson, 1853-54. Three volumes. Octavo, original blind-stamped plum cloth. First edition, mixed Senate and House issues, of this fascinating and richly illustrated narrative of South American exploration, with 52 tinted lithographs and 38 in-text wood engravings, accompanied by scarce portfolio volume of three folding maps tracing Herndons passage through the Andes and descent along the Amazon.After serving in the United States Naval Observatory, Lt. William Lewis Herndon was sent to the South Pacific and in 1850 was chosen to lead a "Pacific squadron to return through South America via the Amazon Valley," an expedition planned in hopes of colonizing the region with slaveowners, thus eradicating slavery from the southern states, and as a means of preventing English merchants from establishing a cotton-producing industry along the river. Herndon left for Lima in January 1851, where it was decided he would approach the Amazon through Peru and Gibbon through Bolivian tributaries. After difficult passage through Peru, Herndons expedition reached Tingo Maria, at the confluence of the Monzon and Huallaga Rivers, and on September 25, 1851, "boats were fitted with decks and coverings, the American flag was raised and the Amazon was entered." Herndon completed his descent of the Amazon in January 1851 and "after a month sailed for the United States. Herndons report, and that of Gibbon, who had successfully descended the Madeira and Amazon, provided a wealth of information" (Howgego, 283). Herndon submitted his complete survey to Congress on January 26, 1853. It contains "minute, accurate and very interesting