818 



inflamed the imagination of warriors eager for 

 adventurous enterprises ; and the notions com- 

 municated to Luis Daza by the Indian of Ta- 

 cunga were compared with the confused ideas, 

 which Ordaz had collected on the Meta res- 

 pecting the treasures of a great king with one 

 eye {India tuerto), and a people clothed, who 

 rode upon lamas. An old soldier, Pedro de 

 Limpias, who had accompanied Federmann to 

 the table-land of Bogota, carried the first news 

 of Dorado to Coro» where the remembrance of 

 the expedition of Speier (1535 — 1537) to the 

 Rio Papamene was still fresh. It was from this 

 same town of Coro, that Felipe von Huten 

 (Urre, Utre) undertook his celebrated voyage to 

 the province of the Omaguas, while Pizarro, 

 Oreilana, and Hernan Perez de Quesada, bro- 

 ther of the adelantado, sought for the gold coun- 

 try at the Rio Napo, along the river of the Ama- 

 zons, and on the eastern chain of the Andes of 

 New Grenada. The natives, in order to get rid 

 of their troublesome guests, continually describ- 

 ed Dorado as easy to be reached* and situate at 

 no considerable distance. It was like a phan- 

 tom, that seemed to flee before the Spaniards, 

 and to call on them unceasingly. It is in the 

 nature of man wandering on the Earth, to 

 figure to himself happiness beyond the region 

 which he knows. El Dorado, similar to Atlas 

 and the islands of the Hesperides, disappeared 



