May 19, 1916. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 15 
The Search for “El Dorado”—Smithsonian Pamphlet De- 
scribes Early Maps Relating to It. 
THE name “EI Dorado,” which dates 
back to the first part of the 16tn 
century, is Spanish for “the gilded 
one,” and an abbreviation for “the 
gilded man” (el hombre dorado). It 
was first applied to a native South 
American ruler or priest who, so 
early Spanish writers state, was gild- 
ed at a certain annual ceremony “and 
then bathed in a lake near Santa Fe 
de Bogota, Colombia. The name next 
came to signify a legendary golden 
city, also called Manoa or Omoa, 
much sought after but never found. 
Later it was used to indicate a myth- 
ical country somewhere in South 
America where gold and_ precious 
stones were to be found in great 
abundance, and for which many ex- 
peditions searched in vain, among 
them those of Ordaz, Orellana, von 
Hutten, Quesada, and Sir Walter 
Raleigh. ‘Today El Dorado is used 
metaphorically to designate a place 
where wealth can be rapidly acquired. 
A phamphlet just issued by the 
Smithsonian Institution relates to the 
recent investigations of Dr. Rudolf 
Schuller, who writes on two sixteenth- 
century maps which relate to the 
Ordaz and Dortal expeditions i 
search of El Dorado. The first map 
he attributes to Oviedo, placing the 
date after 1542, and the latter, which 
is anonymous, Dr. Schuller believes 
to have made about 1560. 
Diego de Ordaz, a former com- 
panion of Cortez, also credited as the 
first person to ascend the great vol- 
cano Popocatepetl near the City of 
Mexico, was granted a tract of land 
in South America by the Spanish 
Crown in 1530. His concession was 
for the colonization of the then very 
indefinite district of Maranon on the 
mainland. Ordaz sailed for South 
America, October 20, 1531, with 450 
men in three vessels; he was met at 
the Canaries by another vessel and 
150 men, cies owing to severe storms 
the Admiral’s ship was the only one 
to reach the coast in the neighborhood 
of the mouth of the Amazon. Thence 
he sailed northward to Paria, where 
he found and captured a fort built by 
Antonio Sedeno, justly claiming tiat 
this fort was on his concession where 
Sedeno had no right. Being dissatis- 
fied with the region of the mouths of 
the Amazon and the coast of southern 
Guiana, however, Ordaz abandoned 
all attempts to colonize there and sail- 
ed north to the mouths of the Orinoco 
to explore the delta. 
Two of the inscriptions on the old 
Spanish map refer to this exploring 
expedition, which set out from Paria 
on June 23, 1532, with 280 men, 18 
horses and one mule, in seven galleys, 
and finally arrived at an Indian vii- 
lage called Huyapari or Aruacay. A 
translation of the legend reads: “The 
large village of Huyapari is situated 
two leagues inland from the Orin- 
oco.” ‘According to Indian inform- 
ants the source of the river was in a 
large lake lying in the mountains, the 
route to which lay through a province 
called Meta, where gold was abund- 
ant. This was El Dorado. 
But the second legend inscribed 
above the mountains in the upper- 
right-hand corner of the map, informs 
us that ‘“Ordaz could not pass this 
chain of mountains (by the river), 
on account of the bad condition of the 
water, and from this mountain he re- 
turned down the same river to the 
sea.” Another inscription states that 
“To this side (west of the moun- 
tains), or the other end of this rock, 
Christians had not (yet) come,” while 
an added note by the cartographer 
Oviedo mentions the accident on the 
return trip from the expedition im 
search of Meta—EIl Dorado—“Ordaz’s 
large canoe remained (here) on dry 
Clanrct a0 
Although he later tried an overland 
route, Ordaz never located FE] Dorado ; 
he suffered misfortune, lost his hold- 
ings in South America, and finally 
died on the way to Spain in 1533. 
In 1533 Geronimo Dortal, treasurer 
of the Ordaz expedition, was granted 
the position formerly held by “Ordaz, 
and also made governor of Paria. 
Shortly after his arrival, in 1534, 
Dortal equipped a new expedition to 
search for the famous Meta—Fl 
Dorado—under the command of 
Alonso de Herrera, a former lieuten- 
ant of Ordaz, and the itinerary of 
his ill-fated voyage is described on 
Oviedo’s map in several legends, the 
last of which tells pathetically of his 
end: “Here they killed Alonso de 
Herrera, lieutenant of Governor Dor- 
tal; and to this place came afterwards 
the said Dortal and found true marks 
of the death of the aforesaid Herrer: ; 
and there were found among ot! er 
things, a little bell and a tin-cup.” 
In 1536, about a year after Her- 
rera’s death, Dortal organized another 
expedition which is said to have dis. 
covered the domain of the female 
chief Orocomay, an independent com- 
munity of Indian women, locat€d on 
Oviedo’s map between the Huyapari 
and the Barrancas rivers. This leg- 
end reads: “Here are the villages 
and domain of Queen Orocomay, who 
employs only females.” Similar 
Amazons were also reported by Oret- 
lana in 1542, but today science does 
not credit such communities to South 
America. 
One other legend relating to El 
Dorado reads: “Beyond these chains 
of mountains of the river Huyapari, 
there are vast plains which are be- 
lieved to be the land of Peru, and the 
Indians say that beyond these chains 
of mountains there are great treas- 
ures and much gold.” Contrary to 
some students of history Dr. Schulle* 
places the date of this early map as 
after 1542, believing that it could not 
have been’ made until two or three 
years after the latest date recorded. 
The second map, showing the rivers 
Amazon and Orinoco and the adja- 
cent shores, is believed by Dr. Schul- 
ler to date about 1560. It includes 
two references to the Ordaz expedi- 
tion on 1532, and much other inter- 
esting information to students of geo- 
graphy and history. 
The region where on other maps 1s 
generally shown the legendary lake of 
Manoa, is here occupied by the fol- 
lowing inscription: “This chain of 
mountains extends from the kingdom 
(of New Granada) and from Pern: i in 
Peru it is rich in silver; and in the 
kingdom it is rich in gold; and this 1s 
what they call El Dorado.” 
The author feels that: “The in- 
fluence of El Dorado and other simi- 
lar traditions of genuine Indian 
origin, on the cartography of South 
America during the second half of 
the 16th century has not yet been 
studied with the care and attention 
which such an important historical 
and geographical question deserves.” 
Joseph Chamberlain was the guest 
of honor at a dinner in an important 
city. The mayor presided, and, when 
coffee was being served, the mayor 
leaned over and touched Mr. Cham- 
berlain, saying, “Shall we let the peo- 
ple enjoy themselves a little longer, 
or had we better have your speech 
now ?”—E-wxchange. 
Patient—“Oh, doctor, I have a ter- 
ribly tired feeling all the time!’ Phy- 
sician—‘‘Let me see your tongue, ma- 
dam.”—Judge. 
Headache is Nature’s warning that 
the human machine is running badly, 
