The search for El Dorado
The legend of El Dorado predates the arrival of Spaniards in South America. The Chibcha people of present-day Colombia apparently performed an annual ritual where the leader was coated in fine gold dust, which he then washed off in a lake during a solemn ceremony. The first Spanish Conquistadors who explored the interior of Spanish America heard of this “gilded king” and assumed the ritual meant that the Chibcha people had temples and mines similar to the Aztec and Inca empires. The first expedition in search of El Dorado was led by Francisco de Orellana in 1541. Orellana named the Western Hemisphere’s largest river, the Amazon, and followed it across South America to the Atlantic Ocean but he did not find the fabled city of El Dorado. He reported that he did see plenty of gold items in the possession of the Indians.
While Orellano traveled from Peru, in 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh started his search for El Dorado from the east, at the mouth of the Orinoco River. Raleigh’s expedition had several goals. First, obviously he wanted to find the city of El Dorado, which he thought might be an Indian city named Manoa. Second, he wanted to create an English foothold in northern South America that could compete for the loyalty of the American Indians with the Spaniards in Colombia and up the Amazon in Ecuador and Peru. In the sixteenth century the Spaniards had not yet solidified control outside of the heavily populated areas of the Valley of Mexico and the highlands of Peru. Raleigh thought he could either create an English settlement in the land he called Guinea, or at least turn the Indians away from friendly relations with the Spaniards.
Sir Walter Raleigh did not find the golden city of El Dorado, but he remained convinced that fabulous riches could be realized in northern South America. He found gold in riverbanks and in Indian villages. He remained sure that a large quantity of gold could be found in the mountains of northern South America, but he did not have the tools or men to excavate it. Even though Raleigh did not find a huge cache of gold, he considered his adventure to be a success. He made valuable contacts with the Indians, and convinced them, in his eyes, to ignore the Spanish and welcome any future English expeditions.
