El Dorado
El Dorado is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions – before diving into a sacred lake to wash it off. The legend was first recorded in the 16th century by Spanish colonists in the Americas; they referred to the king as el Dorado, the Golden One, a name which eventually came to be applied to the city itself.
The legend is inspired by the culture of the Muisca, an indigenous people who inhabited a plateau in the Andean Mountains range in present-day Colombia. Each time a new leader or Zipa was crowned, his body was covered in gold dust and offerings were transported along to the depths of Lake Guatavita, invoking the goddess who inhabited the lake. This ritual is known as the Muisca Golden Ceremony.
The Muisca were skilled goldsmiths; they made frequent use of golden objects in their religious ceremonies, and also manufactured ornaments and jewellery for trade with the neighbouring tribes. Early European settlers, searching for the source of the gold they found among the lowland peoples, made several attempts to reach the plateau. The first to succeed was Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in 1537. Quesada and his men conquered the territory of the Muisca in the name of Spain, and looted large quantities of gold from their palaces and temples.
Lake Guatavita was later drained by Spanish and British conquerors in order to find its treasures. Gold objects known from this place, which lend legitimacy to the legend of El Dorado, were found, such as the Siecha raft and the popularly known Muisca raft. Some of the pre-Columbian gold objects recovered from Lake Guatavita are on exhibited at the Gold Museum in Bogotá.
Shortly after this, the legend of El Dorado began to spread among the European colonists. In the decades that followed, the city was sought for in various places across the continent. Antonio de Berrio, Quesada's heir, believed that El Dorado lay within the Guianas, and tried on three occasions to forge a path into the uncharted highlands. Before he could make a third attempt, he was taken captive by Sir Walter Raleigh, who then launched his own expedition into the Guianas.
Raleigh likewise failed to reach his goal, but a later survey by his lieutenant, Lawrence Kemys, brought back some local information regarding a great lake called Lake Parime that supposedly lay somewhere further inland. This lake, considered a prime candidate for the location of the golden city, became the object of further searches, and was included in maps throughout the 17th century. Over time, as the area became better charted, the existence of the lake was thrown into doubt. In the early 19th century, Alexander von Humboldt conclusively declared Lake Parime to be a myth, bringing an end to the popular belief in El Dorado.
Nevertheless, the subject has had a lasting cultural impact. The mystery surrounding the lost city and the supposed wealth of its inhabitants have influenced creative media since the time of Voltaire, who included a trip to El Dorado in his 18th-century satire Candide.
Background
, the first known European to reach the Americas after the Scandinavians, made landfall in the Caribbean Islands in 1492. On seeing the golden ornaments worn by some of the native inhabitants, he assumed that he had discovered a prosperous country, and spent several months travelling from island to island, searching for the source of the gold. Although he found no mines, he was unshaken in his conviction that these new lands held great wealth. He promised the Catholic monarchs of Spain, who were sponsoring the expedition, that with a little assistance, he could "give them as much gold as they have need of".Columbus would have been aware of a number of European legends that told of wealthy utopias located in the Western Hemisphere. The ancient Greeks believed that somewhere in the Atlantic lay the Isles of the Blessed, an earthly paradise with a permanently temperate climate. According to second-century author Lucian, the inhabitants of these Isles dwelt in cities made of gold, ivory, and emeralds. The Atlantic also gave its name to the mythical continent of Atlantis, which was said to be home to an advanced civilization rich in gold, silver, and orichalcum. During the Middle Ages, stories were told of the Isle of Seven Cities, a supposed Christian haven, which frequently appeared on 15th-century maps, and which may have inspired the later legend of the Seven Cities of Gold. Columbus also had an interest in finding the location of two regions mentioned in the Bible, Ophir and Tarshish, from whence King Solomon was said to have imported vast quantities of treasure. Columbus believed that not only these two countries, but also the Garden of Eden were to be found somewhere on the newly discovered continent, and many of those who followed him shared the same beliefs.
The early settlers in the Caribbean Islands, however, found their expectations disappointed. The natives possessed a small amount of gold, but did not mine it systematically, and the Spaniards' own mining activities quickly exhausted the local supply. The settlers' attention then turned towards the mainland, and colonies began to be established along the American coast. Despite this unpromising beginning, the conquest of the Aztecs by Hernán Cortés and the conquest of the Incas by Francisco Pizarro soon rekindled European hopes that vast gold deposits still remained to be uncovered.
Origin of the legend
Rumours of gold
The first European incursion into Venezuela was made by Ambrosius Dalfinger, governor of the Spanish settlement of Coro. Dalfinger was an employee of the Welser of Augsburg banking family, a German firm to whom Charles V of Spain had granted, as security for a loan, the governorship of Venezuela and a licence to explore the country. One of the Welsers' principal concerns was to find a passage through the continent to the Pacific Ocean ; such a passage, if found, would open up a new route to India and give Spain an edge in the spice trade.To this end in August 1529, Dalfinger set out with an expeditionary force to Lake Maracaibo. The Europeans drastically underestimated the breadth of the South American landmass, and that this lake would prove to connect with the Pacific seemed impossible. During the course of their nine-month journey, they looted numerous golden trinkets from the local population, and were told that these had been acquired through trade with a certain tribe high up in the mountains. Upon his return to Coro, Dalfinger found that in his absence, he had been presumed dead; the Welser had sent along a replacement governor, Hans Seissenhofer, who had named Nikolaus Federmann as deputy. Dalfinger now resumed the governorship, but temporarily left Federmann in charge while he recovered from an illness.
Federmann, taking advantage of his new authority, soon launched his own expedition into the interior. Placating the indigenous tribes with gifts of beads and iron tools, and searching for information about the South Sea, he was told that the countries bordering this sea were rich in gold, pearls, and gemstones. Enquiring further, Federmann's party were directed to a hilltop from which they could see what appeared to be a large body of water. This was in fact the llanos, a grassland plain which is subject to periodic floods. Having failed to find a route to the Pacific, and faced with difficult terrain, mass illness, and increasingly hostile natives, Federmann was forced to return to Coro empty-handed.
Dalfinger banished Federmann from Venezuela for four years as punishment for abandoning his post. Dalfinger then ventured inland once again in June 1531, travelling south-west to the banks of the river Cesar. Here, he heard of a mountain province called "Xerira", which was said to be the source of all the golden artefacts found amongst the lowland peoples. This was probably a reference to Jerira, located at the northernmost extreme of the Muisca plateau. Dalfinger also heard that the tribe which made the golden objects also exported large quantities of salt. Armed with this clue, he led his party south to the trading centre of Tamalameque, then followed the salt trail into the highlands. At an altitude of 8,000 feet, waging war against the natives in freezing temperatures, they realised they could go no further south and turned back towards Coro. Dalfinger died on the return journey after being shot with a poisoned arrow.
Meanwhile, another group of conquistadors, led by Diego de Ordaz, was searching for the source of the Orinoco River. Sailing inland from the east, rowing hard against the current, they eventually reached the confluence of the Orinoco and the Meta. They attempted to continue south along the Orinoco, but soon ran into impassible rapids. Returning downriver, they were attacked by Caribs; Ordaz's men routed their attackers and captured two. One of the prisoners, being asked if he knew of any gold in the vicinity, told the Spaniards that if they followed the westward course of the Meta River, they would find a kingdom ruled by "a very valiant one-eyed Indian", and that if they found him, "they could fill their boats with that metal". Ordaz attempted to follow this advice immediately, but it was now the dry season and the river level was dropping rapidly. Finally admitting defeat, Ordaz sailed for Spain to make preparations for a second expedition, but died of an illness at sea. Before long, "Meta" would become the general name for the legendary golden kingdom.
In 1534, Sebastián de Belalcázar, one of Pizarro's lieutenants, conquered the Incan city of Quito, where he expected to find great quantities of treasure. Not finding as much as he had hoped, he assumed that the real treasure had been hidden, and set about capturing the local chiefs, whom he tortured for information. One of the chiefs captured during these campaigns was not an Incan; he said that he came from a land 12 days' march to the north. The Spaniards called him el indio dorado, "the golden Indian". The reason for this is not clear, but it may have been because he wore golden armour or other body ornaments. Interested in finding the homeland of this "golden Indian", Belalcázar sent an expedition party north, where they discovered the province of Popayán. However, Belalcázar himself made no further move at this time.