The legend of El Dorado greatly influenced literature and history of the Renaissance period, and also impacted literature and history in later periods.  According to legend, El Dorado was a vaguely defined historical region and city of the New World.  El Dorado was believed to have existed in northern South America (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  The region was fabled in stories of great wealth, gold and precious jewels which were thought to exist in abundance in El Dorado.

     According to legend, El Dorado (the gilded one or man in Spanish) was a fabulously rich Indian ruler (El Dorado vif27.icair…).  The term El Dorado was applied by 16^th century Spanish explorers to the legend, chief and the region in South America (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).

     It was said that each day, El Dorado would smear himself with aromatic oils and then cover himself with gold dust.  When he bathed, the gold dust would wash off his body and accumulate at the bottom of a pool (El Dorado vif27.icair…).  It was also believed that at yearly festivals, El Dorado would cover his entire body with gold dust (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  El Dorado would then plunge into Lake Guatavita to wash off the gold dust after the ceremonies.  His subjects would then throw jewels and golden objects into the lake (Eldorado 829).  As the search for El Dorado continued it was believed that the legendary cities of Manoa and Omagua (or Omoa) existed within the region (Eldorado 829, El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  The term El Dorado itself was also believed to be a golden city.  These were believed to be one or many golden cities from where El Dorado himself ruled (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  The golden city of El Dorado was shown on maps of South America for many years (Eldorado 829).  In the region of El Dorado it was also believed that humans lived without heads and women went to war with strange poisoned arrows that were blown from pipes.  It was also believed that the natives of El Dorado themselves would powder themselves with gold dust (George 536).

     Among the first Europeans to search for El Dorado were the Spanish.  The stories of El Dorado inspired the Spanish to expend vast sums in sending out exploring parties, most of which were decimated by privation and disease (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  Spanish conquistadores heard the tale of El Dorado before 1530, and one of them reported he had visited the city of Omagua himself (Eldorado 829).  In 1535, Luis Daza claimed to have heard the story of El Dorado from local Indians.  This story described the king of a nearby territory in New Granada (now Colombia).  Similar stories began appearing from Peru and Colombia.  Since the Spanish had conquered and claimed the rich kingdoms of the Aztecs and Incas, they believed the tales of El Dorado to be true (El Dorado vif27.icair…).  This greed and search for riches fueled the Spanish, and other European nation’s quest to find the city or region of El Dorado.

     In 1538, Spaniards from Peru searched the Bogota highlands for the gilded man or El Dorado.  These first small attempts failed, but the area remained under Spanish control (Eldorado 829).

     More serious Spanish quests for El Dorado began in 1539 when Gonzalo Pizarro, and his lieutenant Francisco de Orellana, who was also Pizarro’s half brother, crossed the Andes from Quito into the Amazon basin (El Dorado vif27.icair…, Eldorado 829).  In 1541, Pizarro began his expedition into the unexplored regions east of Quito.  This expedition was one of the largest ever mounted to search for El Dorado.  It was comprised of 200 Spaniards, some 4,000 Indians, numerous horses and other animals (Pizarro 17).  In April 1541, Orellana and a brigantine of 50 soldiers were sent ahead of the main party to seek provisions (Orellana 574).  Pizarro failed to find any trace of the rich kingdom of El Dorado.  In fact, Pizarro’s remaining party was forced to eat their dogs and horses and finally returned to Quito in August 1542.  Only a few Spaniards and no Indians survived this disastrous expedition (Pizarro 17).

     The remainder of Orellana’s expedition and continued search for El Dorado, was more celebrated by the Spanish (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  Orellana sailed down the Napo River in search of provisions for his and Pizarro’s party (Eldorado 829).  When he reached the junction of the Napo and Maranon rivers, his group persuaded him of the impossibility of returning to Pizarro.  From this point, Orellana began exploration of the Amazon system.  Drifting with the current, he reached the mouth of the Amazon in August 1542.  From here he proceeded to Trinidad and later returned to Spain.  In Spain, Orellana told of hoards of gold and cinnamon he observed during his explorations.  He also told of encounters with tribes led by women resembling the Amazon of Greek mythology.  These encounters led him to name the major river he had explored, the Amazon (Orellana 574).

     Orellana later sought to explore and exploit the lands he had discovered.  Because of a controversy with Portugal over the ownership of this region of South America, Spain was only able to provide him with assistance, but no official support in Orellana’s later efforts in this region.  While enroute to explore the Amazon again, Orellana’s return ended in disaster. Orellana’s ships and men were lost on the passage to America and his vessel capsized near the mouth of the Amazon where he drowned (Orellana 574).

     In addition to early Spanish explorations, the Germans also led expeditions in search of El Dorado.  In 1538, Germans from Venezuela also searched the Bogota highlands for El Dorado (Eldorado 829).  In 1541, Philipp von Hutten began a five-year effort to explore Venezuela’s interior (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…, Hutten 228).  This expedition left from Coro, a German settlement on the Venezuelan coast, and searched as far as the Omagua region near the Amazon River (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  German attempts to find El Dorado also failed.

     The next attempts to search for El Dorado were again made by the Spanish.  From 1569 to 1572, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada explored eastward from Bogota (Eldorado 829).  As with earlier Spanish attempts, Quesada’s efforts failed.

     Attempts to search for El Dorado were also conducted by the English.  The first English attempts were made by Sir Robert Dudley; Duke of Northumberland and Earl of Warwick.  In 1594, while exploring Guiana, Dudley sent a boat some distance up the Orinoco River in search of El Dorado (Dudley 691).  These attempts also failed, but later inspired future English attempts to search for El Dorado by Sir Walter Raleigh.

     Perhaps the most known and outstanding explorer and writer concerning the legendary region of El Dorado was the Englishman Sir Walter Raleigh.  Raleigh explored South America twice, first in 1595 and later in 1616 for El Dorado.

     Raleigh was highly favored by Queen Elizabeth I throughout the 1580s and was knighted in 1584 (Campbell 75).  In 1594 however, Raleigh fell from Elizabeth’s grace.  Queen Elizabeth I had discovered that Raleigh was having an affair with one of her maids of honour and he was briefly imprisoned due to this.  Raleigh later married this maid of honour (Campbell 75).  In an attempt to regain his position in the royal court, Raleigh tried to interest the Queen in his plan to find the fabled land of El Dorado (Fact File www.nmm…).  Raleigh wished to lead an expedition to South America to search for the legendary El Dorado and exploit its wealth (Raleigh 399).

     In addition to the great legends of El Dorado Raleigh had heard, a letter to Spain had been intercepted confirming the tales of the region.  Robert Dudley had seen this letter and verified it (Campbell 81).

     Raleigh was released from imprisonment in the Tower of London and made his first expedition to South America to search for gold and the mythical country of El Dorado (Fact File www.nmm…, Letters Magazine www.signature…).  Raleigh searched for Manoa in the Orinoco lowlands of South America (Eldorado 829).  Raleigh was unsuccessful in his 1595 expedition (Fact File www.nmm…,). 

     However, upon his return to England, Raleigh published a romantic account of his voyage, The Discovery of Guiana (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  In this sensational and exotic account, Raleigh described the land of El Dorado.  Raleigh claimed Manoa was located on an island in Parima Lake, in Guiana (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  In this account, Raleigh repeated and confirmed earlier claims of the exotic people of El Dorado.  Raleigh told of feasts in which servants of the Emperor stripped naked, anointed their bodies with white Balsamum and blew fine gold powder upon their bodies from head to foot (Campbell 81).  Raleigh also stated “The common soldier …shal find there more rich and bewtifull cities, more temples adorned with golden Images…then either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pazzaro in Peru…Guiana is a Countrey that hath yet her Maydenhead, neuer sackt, turned, nor wrought, the face of the earth hath not beene torne…” Raleigh also told of a crystal mountain covered with diamonds and other precious stones, where waters gush down.  To Raleigh, this mountain gave the impression of a “white Church towre…There falleth ouer it a mightie riuer which toucheth no parte of the side of the mountaine, but…falleth to the grounde with a terrible noyse and clamor, as if 1,000 great belles were knockt one against another…but what it hath I knowe not, neyther durst he or any of his men ascende to the toppe of the saide mountaine, these people adioyning being his enemies (as they were) and the way to it impassible.” (George 537)  Raleigh believed this mountain or tepui (Roraima) of “Christall” marked the way to the legendary city of El Dorado (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  Raleigh apparently had seen a tepui and made the earliest European written reference to one (George 537).  Raleigh also wrote fantastic accounts while sailing on a river during his expedition, and said that the land on both sides was the most beautiful that his eyes had ever beheld.  Raleigh told incredible stories of the numerous crocodiles they encountered while on the river “but for Lagartos it exceeded, for there were thousands of those ugly serpents.”  Raleigh told of one of his servants being killed by a crocodile “I had a negro a very proper young fellow, that leaping out of the Galley to swim in the mouth of this river, was in all our sights taken and devoured with one of those Lagartos” (Campbell 82).

     After Raleigh’s unsuccessful expedition and return to England, Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603.  James I now took the throne (Sir Walter Raleigh… www.devon-cc…).  Raleigh was then stripped of his offices, framed as a member of a plot against the throne and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Tower of London (Sir Walter Raleigh… www.devon-cc…, Campbell 75).  Raleigh was released from the Tower in 1616 (Campbell 75).

     Raleigh was released and ordered, by King James I, to undertake another expedition to Guiana to search for gold (Fact File www.nmm, Campbell 75).  Raleigh returned to the Orinoco River to search for gold and El Dorado again (Letters Magazine www.signature…).  Raleigh’s second expedition was a disaster and when he returned to England the charge of treason was renewed (Campbell 75).  Raleigh was imprisoned again in the Tower of London (Fact File www.nmm…).  King James I held sympathy for and was influenced by the Spanish ambassador Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, the Count of Gondomar.  During Raleigh’s second expedition in Guiana in 1616, he came into conflict with the Spanish, then at peace with England.  Sarmiento persuaded James I to have Raleigh beheaded due to this conflict (James I… 22).  Raleigh was executed under his original sentence of treason and beheaded on 29 October, 1618 (Letters Magazine www.signature,  Campbell 75).

     Although Raleigh’s two expeditions to search for El Dorado were unsuccessful, his explorations and his account, The Discovery of Guiana had great influence on later explorers and writers during and after the Renaissance period.  Lake Parima, which Raleigh had described, was marked on maps for more than two centuries, until its existence was disproved (El Dorado www.eldoradoinc…).  Ironically, rocks that Raleigh had brought back to England from his expeditions were later found to contain a rich lode of gold ore (El Dorado vif27.icair…).      

     In competition with the Spanish, the Portuguese also searched for El Dorado.  In 1603, Pero Coelho de Sousa explored northward from Pernambuco (Eldorado 829), in current day Brazil.  Portuguese attempts to find El Dorado also failed.

     The legend of El Dorado, originating in the Renaissance period, also had influence on major literature following the period.  The legend of El Dorado influenced John Milton in writing Paradise Lost (1667) and Voltaire’s Candide (1759).  El Dorado was also the major inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912).

     John Milton’s masterpiece was Paradise Lost.  Paradise Lost is an epic poem based on the Biblical Genesis account of the rebellion of Satan against God and the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve (McDannell 230).  Descriptions of El Dorado influenced Milton’s depiction and writings (Eldorado 829) on his two paradises in Paradise Lost.

     In Candide, Voltaire described in majestic detail the land of El Dorado.  In chapters 17 and 18 of Candide, Voltaire describes the magnificence of the land, the splendor of their buildings and the unique laws and customs of the people of El Dorado.  Candide and Cacambo were astonished by the abundant wealth and peculiar ways of the people of El Dorado.  Voltaire not only created a place of extreme riches and beauty, but the morals, ethics, beliefs and concerns of the people of El Dorado are of the highest caliber.

     The kingdom of El Dorado remained intact and largely untouched because of its remote location and difficulty in being found and reached.  The kingdom was a vast open plain, surrounded by inaccessible mountains and unscalable rocks and precipices (Voltaire 74 & 78).  The people of El Dorado knew of and feared the greed of European nations.  They also knew of the irrational lust the world had for the gold and riches of their nation.  The people of El Dorado knew the Europeans would kill everyone in their kingdom to obtain their riches.  El Dorado was originally inhabited by the Incas who left the area and were later exterminated by the Spaniards.  They also feared that Sir Walter Raleigh had nearly reached their land a hundred years earlier (Voltaire 78).  Due to these fears, the people of El Dorado agreed upon a law that no inhabitant should ever leave their kingdom.  This was how their innocence and happiness had been preserved (Voltaire 78).

     Due to the high standards and beliefs of the people of El Dorado, they held no esteem or respect for gold, riches or money.  Gold and gems were just dirt and peebles found in their soil.  Money was useless in their kingdom as Candide found when he attempted to pay for dinner from gold nuggets and precious stones he had collected from children that had discarded them after playing.  When he attempted to pay for his dinner, the landlord and his wife burst into laughter and told Candide he didn’t need money to dine here.  Even the king of El Dorado stated “I don’t understand your taste for our yellow mud” (Voltaire 83).

     Many other unique things astonished Candide and Cacambo about the people and their customs within El Dorado.  One old man they spoke to was 172 years old.  The people of El Dorado also worshipped God from morning till night because He had given them everything they needed.  Candide was also amazed that there were no crimes, court cases or prisons in El Dorado.  They also had a magnificent palace of science two thousand feet long.

     In Candide, Voltaire not only has created a kingdom of vast and abundant physical riches, but moral, ethical and spiritual riches as well.  The legend of El Dorado inspired Voltaire to move above the physical lusts and greed of mankind, and to create a paradise on earth.

     The most famous and most recent work inspired by the legend of El Dorado was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912).  In 1884, Everard Im Thurn. a British botanist, explored the El Dorado region of South America and reached the top of the tepui, Mount Roraima (George 538).  Mt. Roraima is the highest tepui within the El Dorado region of South America (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  After Thurn’s return to England, he lectured on his expedition throughout the El Dorado region.  It was one of these lectures that novelist Arthur Conan Doyle attended.  Doyle was so fascinated by Thurn’s account of the remote and mysterious region of El Dorado, that it inspired him to write and publish The Lost World.  This story described the events and exploration of a South American plateau (a tepui) where prehistoric plants and dinosaurs were discovered that had been isolated and preserved for millions of years.  Doyle believed that tepui life had been frozen in time.  “South America is a place I love, and I think, if you take it right through from Darien to Fuego, it’s the grandest, richest, most wonderful bit of earth upon this planet” (George 534).

     The legend of El Dorado, which originated during the Renaissance period, inspired the imagination and passions of men’s minds.  Inspirations that influenced and are witnessed in the works of Raleigh’s The Discovery of Guiana, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Voltaire’s Candide and Doyle’s The Lost World.

     The land of El Dorado was believed to have been within northern South America, east of the Andes Mountains and north of the Amazon River.  This area currently encompasses portions of Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil.  This natural area is referred to as the Guayana Highlands (Means 61).  The Guayana region is one of the most ecologically biodiverse and geologically unique areas in the entire world.  It is currently estimated that at least 10,000 plant species are native to the Guayana region and possibly up to half of these plants are endemic to the area (George 540).  This area contains distinctive and unique table-top mountains, and vertical-walled mesas called tepuis, rising from tropical rainforests (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers, Means 61).  Tepui is a Pemon Indian word of the Carib linguistic stock, which means mountain  (George 534, Means 62).  These tepuis are scattered over an area of some 200,000 square miles (George 534).  Tepuis lie on top of the Guayana Shield and are one of the oldest rock formations in the world (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers, Means 62).  The Guayana Highlands and the Guayana Shield together make up the Guayana region (Means 62).  The Guayana Shield and the Brazilian Shield (south of the Amazon River) represent part of the ancient continent Gondwana (Means 62).  The ancient sandstone and various sedimentary rocks that make up the Guayana Shield are 1.8-2 billion years old (George 539, Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  The geological forces that create tepuis are similar to those that created the mesas and buttes of the American Southwest (Means 18).  The highest tepui is Roraima at 9,094 feet (George 534) and at its summit is a 44 square mile plateau (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  Roraima is also a Pemon Indian word meaning “The large and ever-fruitful Mother of the streams” ( Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  The first European to climb to the top of Roraima was the English botanist, Everard Im Thurn in 1884 (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  Additionally, the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, which drops at least 3,212 feet (George 549) is found on Auyan tepui (George 549, Means 18).  Auyan is also the largest tepui at 700 square kilometers (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…) with a 25 square kilometer (15 sq. miles) summit (Means 18).

     Oddly today, many of the legendary tales of El Dorado, such as dinosaurs and great riches are still being investigated and some have been found to be true.  In 1955, on an expedition to Auyan tepui, Alexander Laime insists he encountered three dinosaur-like lizards.  Laime sketched scale drawings of the creatures, which he said measured slightly less than three feet.  The smaller size of these animals is important because if prehistoric reptiles have survived within the El Dorado region, they would have to be small ones that could adapt ecologically.  The creatures in Laime’s drawings had very long necks, reptilian faces and four scale-covered fins.  These creatures resembled plesiosaurs, marine reptiles that became extinct 65 million years ago (George 546-48).  Ironically, the imagination and fantastic story of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World, may one day be proven true in the unique and remote regions of El Dorado.        

     Surprisingly, the riches that Raleigh and many other Renaissance explorers searched for have today proven to be true.  Today Indians claim that diamonds can be found in the labyrinth’s of Roraima tepui.  The legend of Raleigh’s crystal mountain may indeed be reality (George 542).  Sir Walter Raleigh first noted the presence of a mountain of iron ore in 1595 (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).  Although the legendary El Dorado was never found, today rich gold and ore deposits have been found in the region and are now being mined (El Dorado vif27.icair…).  In 1961, the CVG (Corporacion Venezolano de Guayana) was formed to manage and control the extraction of manganese, bauxite, iron, gold and diamonds from the region (Guayana… www.lastfrontiers…).

     The amazing legends and tales of El Dorado that launched numerous European expeditions into the region, during the Renaissance period and also inspired great literature during and after the period today oddly have proven to be true to some extent.  Today, El Dorado has come to mean anyplace where wealth can be quickly and easily gained (Eldorado 829).  But in the case of the El Dorado region, it has taken nearly 400 years to prove only portions of the legend.  Ironically, the people of El Dorado in Voltaire’s Candide feared the greed and lust of European nations and mankind in general.  They knew this greed could one day destroy the physical and spiritual paradise Voltaire had created.  It is said that in every legend a bit of truth can be found.  The El Dorado region is one of the most ecologically diverse and incredible natural areas remaining upon the earth.  In time, the greed and lusts of mankind, which began in the Renaissance period, may lead to the ultimate destruction of the El Dorado region.  Oddly, the only way the region may be preserved is in the mind’s of mankind through great literature such as Raleigh’s The Discovery of Guiana, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Voltaire’s Candide and Doyle’s The Lost World.  Perhaps sometimes it is better to leave great legends undiscovered!