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INDIAN AND OTHER 



by the proximity, until they entirely disappear. Thus it 

 happened to Raleigh, and to all those who engaged in the 

 conquest of Dorado*. 



Far happier would have been the lot of Don Francisco Bo- 

 horquez, had his reveries been realized. In the year 1635 he 

 discovered Enim, reached its confines, and ordered his arrival 

 to be announced to the monarch. His lofty stature, his valour, 

 his fine personal qualities, and his discretion, procured him 

 an access to the capital. Its plan, its superb pillars, the or- 

 der and disposition of its palaces and squares, and the refined 

 policy of its inhabitants, would have terrified any other than 

 Bohorquez. He was, notwithstanding, overpowered by sur- 

 prize at the sight of the imperial alcazar, or castle. It was 

 built on a multitude of columns of porphyry and alabaster, 

 and had its flooring skirted by a spacious gallery, at the extre- 

 mities of which the cedar and the ebon vv^ere sculptured in a 



* It is extraordinary that father Gumilla, in his work entitled " Orinoco ilustrado^'' 

 published in the middle of the eighteenth century, should have maintained the ex- 

 istence of this fabulous kingdom. Had he taken the trouble to consult his brethren, 

 the missionaries of Maynas, he would not have confounded the names of Manoa, 

 city of the lake, Omaguas, and Enaguas. It is equally surprizing that M. De La 

 Condamine should have lost his time in endeavouring to find a site in which to place 

 the city of Dorado, and the lake of Parima ; and should at length have fixed on the 

 Mahari, and the banks of the Yupara. The true lake of Parima, is the lake of the 

 great Cocamas. Manoa was in those times the general and comprehensive name of 

 the tribes of Panos, Cocamas, Maynas, Sec. which were very numerous ; and Ena- 

 guas, or Omaguas, is the province of that name, having for its capital San Joaquin. 

 The lakes of gold are the sands, stored with that metal, swept along by the rivers 

 which flow from the Cordillera into the Maranon and its branches, as well as into 

 the Orinoko. The cities, statues, plates of gold employed .as tiles, ^c. are the in- 

 dentions of ambition, and of a propensity for the marveUous, 



thousand 



