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birth to the idea, that on the east of the Nevados 

 of Tunguragua, Cayambe, and Popayan, 66 were 

 vast plains, abounding in precious metals, and 

 where the inhabitants were covered with armour 

 of massy gold." Gonzalo Pizarro, in searching 

 for these treasures, discovered accidentally, in 

 1539, the cinnamon-trees of America (laurus 

 cinnamomoides, Mut.) ; and Francisco de Orel- 

 lana went down the Napo, to reach the river of 

 Amazons. Since that period expeditions were 

 undertaken at the same time from Venezuela, 

 New Grenada, Quito, Peru, and even from 

 Brazil and the Rio de la Plata *. for the conquest 

 of Dorado. Those, of which the remembrance 

 have been best preserved, and which have most 

 contributed to spread the fable of the riches of 

 the Manaos, the Omaguas, and the Guaypes, 

 as well as the existence of the Lagunas de oro, 

 an4 the town of the Gilded King (Grand Patiti, 

 Grand Moxo, Grand Paru, or E?iim), are the 

 incursions made to the south of the Guaviare, 

 the RioFragua, and the Caqueta. Orellana, hav- 

 ing found idols of massy gold, had fixed men's 

 ideas on an auriferous land between the Papa- 

 mene and the Guaviare. His narrative, and 

 those of the voyages of Jorge de Espira (George 



* Nufio de Chaves went from the Ciudad de la Asumpcion, 

 situate on the Rio Paraguay, to discover, in the latitude of 

 24° south, the vast empire of Dorado, which was every where 

 supposed to be on the eastern back of the Andes, 



