Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/70



HE licentiate Juan de Castellanos, in his "Elegias de Varones Illustres de Indias" (1589), sang the legend of the dorado as it was current in Quito in 1536:

 When with that folk came Annasco, Benalcazar learned from a stranger Then living in the city of Quito, But who called Bogotá his home, Of a land there rich in golden treasure, Rich in emeralds glistening in the rock.

A chief was there, who, stripped of vesture, Covered with golden dust from crown to toe, Sailed with offerings to the gods upon a lake, Borne by the waves upon a fragile raft, The dark flood to brighten with golden light.

In these words of a poet who can make far more pretension to historical accuracy than his contemporaries Erxcilla and Martin de Barco lies a significant confirmation of the thesis maintained in our chapter on Cundinamarca: that the fame of the dorado had penetrated southward. Belalcazar's contemporary Oviedo declares positively that much was said in those regions of a great chief called "Dorado." Herrera, although not really contemporary (he was born in 1549), but one of the best authorities