Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders/El Dorado
EL DORADO
EL DORADO (the Gilded) has come to be a term signifying a wealthy place, a wealthy land, a paying enterprise. It means nothing of the kind, however. It relates to a gilded youth, and here again tradition justifies a common phrase. He was a Chibcha chief, who anointed his body with fragrant gums, and over whom his priests twice a day blew gold-dust, through a bamboo. In 1536 three expeditions set out for the conquest of the present republic of Colombia: Fredemann's troop, from Venezuela; Quesada's, which ascended the Magdalena River; and Pizarro's, that went up from Peru in charge of Benalcazar. Oddly enough, they reached the plain of Bogota almost together, Fredemann's company arrayed in skins, Quesada's dressed like the natives, and Benalcazar's in glittering armor, with banners. Quesada had divided two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in gold and two thousand emeralds among his men before he met the others, but none of them had seen El Dorado, from whose coffers they expected to plunder gold and gems far in excess of this, and the wealth. alleged to have been stored in the temple of Suamoz was never taken out of its ruins. Its priest fired it on the approach of the Spaniards and was crushed by the tumbling walls, with him perishing "the traditions of a people and the history of a nation." Gold was picked up in other temples, and to this day is found in ancient graves. Ornaments and images of the metal have been discovered in the sabana, the lagoons of which are thought to have been held sacred. Their sanctity may have arisen from some tradition of the tremendous cataclysm by which the great lake that once filled this valley was drained through the gorge of the Tequendama. With the lowering of the waters were revealed the gold-bearing ledges and gravels that furnished to the Indians a wealth abundant and unprized.
El Dorado ruled in Manoa, a city that may have been some other than the predecessor of Bogota. On state occasions he showed himself to his people all shining with gold, and threw metals, emeralds, and such gifts into a sacred lake, where he bathed presently. In addition to the three expeditions named, others essayed the mountain country in various directions, and, while El Dorado eluded them, considerable geography was added to the world's meagre store of that science. Orellana declared that he found El Dorado in a voyage down the Amazon in 1540, but he didn't. He may not have been a wilful liar, however, because the practice alleged of the Colombian natives may have been followed elsewhere, and may, indeed, be the source of the El Dorado story. It was that of anointing and gilding a chief on a certain festival, the gilded one personifying the sun. It is a wee bit unlikely that any man could endure to be gummed and gold-plated for any length of time. The clogging of his skin-pores would at least injure his complexion. It is related of a boy who was gilded and carried in a religious procession, to represent the infant Christ effulgent, that he died in a few hours, because he could not per-spire. The Spaniards never thought upon these matters. They were willing to perspire, some, themselves if they could only get the gold that had been won by the sweat of other people.