58 
YESEZUELA 
and regulations for the government of the mining camps, requir- 
ing prospectors to obtain licenses from the colonial officials at 
Georgetown before commencing work, and to advertise their 
claims and locations in the Official Gazette of the colony. 
These regulations have been imposed by the British colonial 
authorities within a territory to Avhich they did not claim owner- 
shi}> until the discovery of gold, and over which they did not 
attempt to exercise jurisdiction until 1883 ; and as new mines 
have been discovered they have gradually pushed their frontier 
line westward until it now includes nearly twice as much terri- 
tory as they claimed twenty years ago and seven times as much 
as was ceded to Great Britain by Holland in 1814. It is true that 
the Venezuelans have shown no enterprise or activity in develop- 
ing their own resources. They have permitted foreign prospectors 
to enter and occupy the mining districts at their will, and have 
never attempted to exercise police or even administrative control 
in the mining camps. The original })rospectors, being English- 
men, naturally looked to the colonial government at Georgetown 
for ]>rotection, and the other foreigners fell in without a question,, 
acknowledged British sovereignty and obeyed British law. 
It was within this disputed territory, between the Orinoco and 
the Amazon, that the ancient voyageurs located the mythical city 
of Manoah, the El Dorado upon which the wonder and greed of 
two centuries were concentrated. Tidings of its barbaric splen- 
dor were brought home by every voyageur, and each caravel that 
left the shores of Europe carried- ambitious and avaricious men,. 
Avho ho})ed to share its plunder before their return to Spain ; but 
the alluring El Dorado was not a place ; it was a man. The term 
signifies “ the gilded,” and was originally applied to a mythical 
king who every morning was sprinkled with gold dust by hi.s 
slaves. The nuggets of gold and the rudely wrought images which 
Sir Walter Raleigh laid at the feet of Queen Elizabeth when he 
returned from his exploration of the Orinoco doubtless came from 
the noAV famous mine of El Callao. But the El Dorado was never 
found ; no courage could overcome, no persistence could dis- 
cover, what did not exist, and the fabulous king of the fabulous 
island still sits on his fabulous throne, covered from his fabulous 
crown to his fabulous sandals with the fabulous dust of gold. 
[Note — The foregoing article is an abstract of a lecture delivered before The National 
Geographic Society by Mr Curtis, January 10, 1896. The lecture itself consisted of se- 
lected extracts from Mr Curtis’ book, “V’enezuela: A Land Where it’s Always Sum- 
mer,” which will shortly be published by Harper k Brothers.] 
