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Why did many Indigenous survivors of European conquest flee into remote parts of the Amazon basin?

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Map of South America and the Caribbean showing the distribution of Aboriginal cultural groups, with regions color-coded by cultural type including Andean, Central American, tropical forest, and various nomadic cultures such as aquatic nomads, forest hunters and gatherers, and shellfish gatherers. Major group names are labeled across the continent and surrounding islands. — South American forest Indian Distribution of aboriginal South American and circum-Caribbean cultural groups.

Following the European conquest of the Amazon basin, many Indigenous survivors fled into remote, inaccessible sections of the region to escape the catastrophic collapse of their native life.1

This migration was driven by several severe pressures:

Enslavement: Large numbers of Indigenous people were captured and forced into slavery, particularly during organized raids known as bandeiras that occurred from the 16th to the 18th century.1
Disease: Indigenous populations were decimated by the introduction of European diseases to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox, measles, and influenza.1
Exploitation: Early explorers frequently commandeered Indigenous food supplies and canoes. Later, during the rubber boom, Indigenous people were captured and enslaved to exploit rubber trees, which were difficult to harvest due to their sparse distribution.1

These factors led to a precipitous decrease in the Indigenous population, forcing survivors to retreat into the most remote areas of the basin to avoid further contact and exploitation.1