262 TlMEHRI. 
of El Dorado has always possessed a romantic interest 
which makes it all the stranger that its exploitation has 
been delayed so long. It is unnecessary to refer in 
detail to the tradition of an il ideal city of golden palaces, 
and streets paved with precious stones, which reflected 
their gorgeous beauty in the translucent waters of the 
Parima," beyond remarking that the fable belongs to 
the country south of the Pacaraima mountains in the 
vicinity of Lake Amucu. " The geological structure of 
this region" remarks SCHOMBURGK " leaves but little 
doubt that it was once the bed of an inland lake, which 
by one of those catastrophes, of which even later times 
give us examples, broke its barriers, forcing for its waters 
a path to the Atlantic. May we not conne6l with the 
former existence of this inland sea, the fable of the 
Lake Parima and the El Dorado ? Thousands of years 
may have elapsed ; generations may have been buried 
and returned to dust ; nations who once wandered on its 
banks may be extin6l and even no more in name; still 
the tradition of the Lake Parima and El Dorado sur- 
vived those changes of time ; transmitted from father to 
son, its fame was carried across the Atlantic, and kindled 
the romantic fire of the chivalric RALEIGH." 
It was believed by RALEIGH and his contemporaries, 
that subsequent to the conquest of Peru, the dethroned 
dynasty of the Incas had founded a new empire to the 
eastward in Guiana, and although no good grounds for 
this belief have ever been adduced, a curious coincidence 
may be pointed out in connection with it. We know 
that it was the policy of the Incas to rule their subjects 
with despotic authority, and to impress upon them that 
all precious metals or stones wherever found belonged 
