816 



mistaken* in admitting, that Orellana received 

 the first notions of it (1540) on the banks of the 

 Amazon. The history of Fray Pedro Simon 5 

 founded on the memoirs of Quesada, the con- 

 queror of Cundirurnarca, proves directly the 

 contrary ; and Gonzalo Diaz Pe Pineda^ as early 

 as 1536, sought for the gilded man beyond the 

 plains of the province of Quixos. The ambas- 

 sador of Bogota, whom Daza met with in the 

 kingdom of Quito, had spoken of a country 

 situate toward the east. Was this because the 

 table-land of New Grenada is not on the north, 

 but on the north-east of Quito ? We may ven- 

 ture to say, that the tradition of a naked man 

 covered with powdered gold must have belonged 

 originally to a hot region, and not to the cold 

 table-lands of Cundirumarca, where I often 

 saw the thermometer sink below four or five 

 degrees ; however, on account of the extraordi- 

 nary configuration of the country, the climate 

 differs greatly at Guatavita, Tunja, Iraca, and 

 on the banks of the Sogamozo. Sometimes also 

 religious ceremonies are preserved, which took 

 rise in another zone ; and the Muyscas, accord- 

 ing to ancient traditions, made Bochica, their 

 first legislator and the founder of their worship, 

 arrive from the plains situate to the east of the 

 Cordilleras. I shall not decide whether these 



* Hist, of America, vol. ii, p. 215. 



