-El Dorado

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The legend of El Dorado, a region in South America with such an abundance of gold that it is used to construct and decorate an entire city, originates with the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Spanish conquistadores uncovered so much gold and silver in the Incan empire that they believed an even greater treasure was located between modern day Peru and Venezuela. This legend began with a rumored king who covered himself in gold dust in an annual ceremony and eventually grew into an entire city of gold. Numerous attempts were made to locate El Dorado, also known as the city of Manoa, including one by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh’s 1595 expedition sailed up the Orinoco river in an attempt to locate Lake Parime, on which Manoa was thought to be located. Raleigh and his associate Lawrence Kemys, would make several subsequent expeditions, mapping a significant portion of the land surrounding the Orinoco River. No historical analog to El Dorado has ever been found, but the legend of the city has come to represent a land of immense wealth and prosperity in popular culture. 

Lawrence Kemys (-1618).
A Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana.
London: T. Dawson, 1596.

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/258326

A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.

Jacob Adrien Van Heuvel (1787-1874).
El Dorado; being a narrative of the circumstances which gave rise to reports, in the sixteenth century, of the existence of a rich and splendid city in South America, to which that name was given, and which led to many enterprises in search of it; including a defence of Sir Walter Raleigh…
New York: J. Winchester [c1844]

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/263984

A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.

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