781 



ferous land, whence Father Fritz received plates 

 of beaten gold in his mission on the Amazon, 

 toward the end of the seventeenth century. 



The first, and above all the most celebrated 

 enterprises attempted in search of El Dorado 

 were directed toward the eastern back of the 

 Andes of New Grenada. Fired with the ideas, 

 which an Indian of Tacunga had given of the 

 wealth of the king or Zaque of Cundirumarca*, 

 Sebastian de Belalcazar, in 1535, sent his cap- 

 tains Anasco and Ampudia, to discover the 

 valley of Dorado^- twelve days journey from 

 Guallabamba, consequently in the mountains 

 between Pasto and Popayan. The information 

 which Pedro de Anasco had obtained from the 

 natives, joined to that which was received sub- 

 sequently (1536) by Diaz de Pineda, who had 

 discovered the provinces of Quixos and Canela, 

 between the Rio Napo and the Rio Pastaca, gave 



* Herera Dec. V> Lib. 7, cap. 14 (vol. iii, p. 178). Is 

 it not rather the true ancient name of New Grenada, which 

 other writers on the Conquest call Cundinamarca ? It is how- 

 ever the last form, which has been revived in our days, in the 

 war of the independence of the colonies. 



+ El valle del Dorado. Pineda relates, <f que mas adelante 

 de la provincia dela Canela se hallan tierras mui ricas adonde 

 andaban los hombres armados de piecas y joyas de oro y que 

 no hdvia sierra, ni montana" Herera Dec. v, lib, x, cap. 

 xiv (torn. 3, p. 244), and Dec. vi, lib. viii, cap. vi (torn, iv, 

 p. 180). Geogr. Blaviana, vol. xi, p. 261. Southey, torn. '% 

 p. 78 et 373. 



