802 



gold. Forgetting the precise etymology of the 

 word Dorado (the gilded), they have not per- 

 ceived, that this tradition is a local fable, as were 

 almost all the ancient fables of the Greeks, the 

 Hindoos, and the Persians. The history of the 

 Gilded Man belongs originally to the Andes of 

 New Grenada, and particularly to the plains in 

 the vicinity of their eastern side : we see it pro- 

 gressively advance, as I observed above, three 

 hundred leagues toward the east-north-east, 

 from the sources of the Caqueta to those of the 

 Rio Branco and the Essequebo. Gold was 

 sought in different parts of South America before 

 1536, without the word Dorado having been 

 ever pronounced, and without the belief of the 

 existence of any other centre of civilization and 

 wealth, than the empire of the Inca of Cuzco. 

 Countries which now do not furnish commerce 

 with the smallest quantities of the precious 

 metals, the coast of Paria, Terra Firma ( Castilla 

 del OroJ, the mountains of Saint Martha, and 

 the isthmus of Darien, then enjoyed the same 

 celebrity, which has been more recently acquired 

 by the auriferous lands of Sonora, Choco, and 

 Brazil*. 



* I have developed the causes of the apparent riches of 

 coasts recently disco veredj in a work, which treats particu- 

 larly of the accumulation of the precious metals in Europe 

 and Asia, Essai Polit. sur la Nouv. Esp. t torn, ii, chap. 2, p. 

 646. 



