Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/238

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with gold  dust,  thus  originating  the  idea  of  a  gilded humanity, that  people  came  to  think  of  the  country as gilded.

The high  priest. El Dorado,  the  lord  of  this  magnif- icence— for chief  and  country  generally  bore  the  same name — was every  day  annointed  with  perfumed  gum and bathed  in  gold-dust,  so  that  his  whole  body  glit- tered like the  sun. His moving  was  as  the  moving  of a  golden  statue,  and  his  breathing  was  as  of  subli- mated diamonds. Incredible it  would  ever  seem, were not  the  truth  verified  by  many  witnesses,  how long, and  earnestly,  and  honestly  men  pretending  to sanity  sought  this  myth. Beginning with  Sebastian de Belalcdzar  in  1535,  and  Gonzalo  Pizarro  in  1539, the valley  of  Dorado  was  the  object  of  search  by various  expeditions  fitted  out  from  Peru,  Quito,  Bra- zil, New Grenada,  and  the  Bio  de  la  Plata,  the  in- fatuation continuing down  to  as  late  a  period,  in  one instance at  least,  as  1775.

Comino- to  more  definite  statements,  we  know  that a Spaniard  named  Martinez  reported  that  having  been adrift at  sea  he  was  thrown  on  the  coast  of  Guiana, and taken  to  Manoa,  the  capital  of  the  king  of  that region, who  was  an  ally  of  the  incas  of  Peru,  that  the roof and  walls  of  the  city,  wherein  he  had  resided seven months,  were  covered  with  the  precious  metals. Orellana, a  lieutenant  of  Pizarro,  who  visited  the  val- ley of the  Amazonas,  1540-1,  spoke  of  a  region  where gold and  silver  abounded  to  a  fabulous  extent. He reported to  have  been  in  Manoa,  and  to  have  seen  the immense treasures. Van Hutten,  who  commanded an expedition  from  Coro,  on  the  coast  of  Venezuela, 1541-5, thought  that  he  had  caught  a  ghmpse  of  the golden city,  in  search  of  which  he  had  started. Several expeditions  undertaken  to  reach  the  mythical region failed,  notably  one  in  1560  under  Gonzalo Ximenez de  Quesada  from  Bogota. The fable  has occupied men's  minds,  among  others  leading  to  results that of  Sir  Walter  Baleigh,  who  undertook  to  find