El Dorado

El Dorado—Spanish for "the gilded man"—is the fabled city of gold and jewels believed by the 16th-century Spanish and other Europeans to exist somewhere in South America. The legend supposedly originated from the Chibcha people of Colombia, who each year anointed a chieftain and rolled him in gold, which he then ceremonially washed off in a sacred lake, casting offerings of emeralds and gold into the waters. Who were some of the explorers who searched for El Dorado, and where did they look? More...

great folktale

The Seekers of El Dorado

Over the years, many men searched South America for the legendary lost city of gold. At best, they were impromptu explorers, who treated the natives they encountered relatively fairly and helped map the unknown interior of South America. At worst, they were greedy, obsessed butchers who tortured their way through native populations, killing thousands in their fruitless quest. Here are some of the more distinguished seekers of El Dorado:

Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana: In 1541, Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of Francisco Pizarro, led an expedition east from Quito. After a few months, he sent his lieutenant Francisco de Orellana in search of supplies: Orellana and his men instead found the Amazon River, which they followed to the Atlantic Ocean.
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada: Quesada set out from Santa Marta with 700 men in 1536: in early 1537 they reached the Cundinamarca plateau, home of the Muisca people, which they swiftly conquered. Quesada's expedition was the one that actually found El Dorado, although the greedy conquistadors at the time refused to admit that the mediocre takings from the Muisca were the fulfillment of the legend and they kept looking.

Silverberg, Robert. The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Athens: the Ohio University Press, 1985.

I do believe we have all searched for our El Dorado. And for what it is worth, it is usually a well worth activity, as long as it does become an over burdening obsession.