819 



by degrees from the domain of geography, and 

 entered that of mythological fictions. 



1 shall not here relate the numerous enter- 

 prises, which were undertaken for the conquest 

 of this imaginary country. Unquestionably we 

 are indebted to them in great part for our 

 knowledge of the interior of America; they have 

 been useful to geography, as errors and daring 

 hypotheses are often to the search of truth : but 

 in the discussion on which we are employed, it is 

 incumbent on me to rest only upon those facts, 

 which have had the most direct influence on the 

 construction of ancient and modern maps. Her- 

 nan Perez de Quesada, after the departure of his 

 brother the adelantado for Europe, sought anew 

 (1539), but this time in the mountainous land 

 north-east of Bogota, the temple of the Sun 

 (Casa del Sol), of which Geronimo de Ortal had 

 heard spoken in 1536 on the banks of the Meta. 

 The worship of the Sun introduced by Bochica, 

 and the celebrity of the sanctuary of Iraca, or 

 Sogamozo, gave rise to those confused reports of 

 temples and idols of massy gold ; but on the 

 mountains as in the plains, the traveller believed 

 himself to be always at a distance from them, 

 because the reality never corresponded with the 

 chimerical dreams of the imagination. Fran- 

 cisco de Orellana, after having vainly sought 

 Dorado with Pizarro in the Provincia de los Ca- 

 nelos, and on the auriferous banks of the Napo, 



3 g 2 



