The Stories of El Dorado

"O, Thou of infinite mercy and compassion, dry the hot tears that flood and burn my face," he said brokenly as he looked toward Tulla. People now say that his tears marked and ate into the stone, and that the print of his hands is still to be found on it.

After he had reached a very wide river and had commanded his followers to help build a bridge across it, he was met by some men who tried to stop him.

"Where are you going?" they asked, "and why do you leave your city? To whose care will you commend it, and who will do penance in it?" The Golden Hearted answered them firmly:

"You can in no wise hinder me, for I must go."

"But where are you going?" they insisted.

"To Tlapalla," he answered.

"For what purpose are you going?"

"The sun calls me," he said.

"Go then," they replied, "but leave behind all the mechanical arts, the melting of silver, the working of precious stones and of masonry, picture writing, feather work and other crafts." And then they would have robbed him, but he threw all his rich jewels into a fountain. Among his tormentors was the pretended old wizard who tried to induce him to drink more wine.

"No, I can not drink it. I can not even taste it again," he said, and that night in his sleep he turned his head from side to side and tore his hair with his hands.

The next morning in passing between a volcano and the snowy mountain tops, all his servants being hunchbacked, died of cold, and he had no way to get down the steep mountain side except to slide in a squatting position with his feet close together.

In one place he stopped and built a square stone court for ball play, and taught the people how to play the game. Now it is said that he drew a line through the center of the court, and that made the deep gash in the mountains still to be seen.

In another place he threw a dart at a tree and pierced it in such a manner that it looked like a cross, and after that a cross was called "The Tree of Our Life," in memory of this event. Some say that he built houses with certain underground passageways where he hid picture writing and records of his teachings, and just before arriving at the water's edge, he set up and balanced a great stone so that it could be moved with one's little finger, but a whole multitude could not displace it.

No doubt you remember the village chief where the Golden Hearted went when he first arrived from the Happy Island, and also that he sent this chief a cross with a hand in the center. Now that he was going home again, the Golden Hearted thought he would visit the chief and see how he and his people were progressing.

Imagine his surprise in finding that they had dedicated a temple to him, and that in the middle of the square tower was a terra cotta statue of himself dressed as a warrior holding an arrow in his hand, and because the statue was hollow they thought it was an oracle. His name in their language was Cukulcan, but the common people called him "The Working Hand," and had great respect for a huge stone cross erected in the turreted courtyard in front of the temple, which had a big red hand in the center.

When the Golden Hearted went among the people, he found that they remembered everything he had told them, and that on the anniversary of his coming great crowds of people came on a pilgrimage to the oracle statue in the temple. It did no good for him to tell them that he was simply an elder brother and teacher come to give them aid in a simple, kindly way. They believed he was sent by God, and for ages after the people made pilgrimages to this shrine, and held it in very great esteem.

Realizing that it was time for him to go down to the sea coast among the fishermen he had first seen, he went to the temple service one morning, and after praying before the altar, picked up a sacred Tunkel and sang them a prophetic song of farewell:

"Ye men of Itza hearken to the tidingsListen to the forecast of this cycle's end,Four have been the ages of the world's progressingNow the fourth is ending and its end is near,A mighty lord is coming, see you give him honor,A potent lord approaches to whom all must bowI, the prophet, warn you, keep in mind my boding,Men of Itza mark it, and await your lord."

"Waste not your time in idle repining," he said in farewell, "I go for purification, but will surely come again."

He only spent time enough on the seashore to build and provision a balsa, or boat with sails, and then he said "good bye" to the fisherfolk, and sailed away toward the east with a few of the wise men for companions. Just before he stepped into the boat he turned to the wise men, who were to remain and said:

"It wrings my heart to part from you, but there is need for you to stay here in order to complete the tasks already begun." As he embraced and kissed each one on the cheek he named their special duty, and had no fear that his orders would not be fully carried out.

"You must go to the son of Guatamo, and tell him my work is finished."

To another he said:

"You must go about and teach in my stead. I will come again, but at another time."

It was difficult for him to persuade the fisherman not to accompany him.

"Have no fear. Mine is a staunch bark capable of riding the storm and stress of the angry sea. Farewell, beloved, I will return to you, when the time and seasons are propitious."

The people on shore turned again and again to throw kisses to him, while the fishermen in their little boats put out to sea with him, and strained their vision to catch a last glimpse of his flower-laden balsa.

The wise men and priests in the temples where-ever he had been, began at once to guard the sacred fires and to watch and pray for his safe return. Lest they should forget his sayings they engraved them on stone, and taught them to the people so that his name was a household word for generations. His was the only civilization known in the Americas before the advent of the white men.

El Dorado, the Golden

WE have read somewhere that "in 1492 Columbus sailed the waters blue," and we know that the big Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 was to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, but no one can possibly tell how long it was after the Golden Hearted sailed away, until Columbus came.

And nobody knows where the Golden Hearted went.

He said he was going to Tlapalla, which we know meant the Happy Island, but no one can find it any more, and there are traditions which say that the island, with all its inhabitants, sank in the ocean. This may be why the Golden Hearted never came back again. Of course the wise men and the primitive people in the Americas believed that he would return because he said he would, and they watched and waited all the long years from one generation to another. Many times bright and promising young men, just out of the universities, or fresh from victories on the battle fields, would take the vows of a priest, and give up all their hopes and ambitions to serve in the temples erected in honor of the Golden Hearted. They did not know anything more about him than we do, but they had faith in him.

They said:

"All the good we know comes from him, and when he returns all wrongs will be righted and every heart made to rejoice. He will give us everything we wish for."

Several times during the year whole nations would fast and do severe penance to induce him to come quickly. Not one of them could be made to believe that he was dead.

"No, no," they said, "he is asleep in the bosom of the sun. He will surely come again; he promised us he would."

Then they would get the idea that he was offended, and the kings would order great sacrifice to be made to appease him. In some places I am sorry to say they offered the quivering, bleeding hearts of human beings by the hundreds, but still he did not come. In other places they remembered his gentleness and only laid fruit, flowers and perfumes on the sacred fire altars which they still kept burning. There were many places where they carefully preserved his sayings by cutting them in sign language on the stones of the temples, and every child was taught to imitate his virtues and follow his example.

For several years before Columbus arrived the priests and wise men had been prophesying that the Golden Hearted was soon to return, that the sun was bringing him back, accompanied by companions like himself, who would rule over them. Not even the great-great-grandfathers of the men then living had seen the Golden Hearted, so they did not know how he looked, but their traditions said that he was a bearded white man, and we shall see by and by what a curious mistake this led them to make about the first white men who came to them after the discovery of America.

Before we can understand how such things could happen, we must remember that the people in Europe did not know there was an America, and that many of them had very queer ideas about the shape of the earth. Some said it was four-cornered and square like a dry goods box, and others thought it was round and flat like a plate, surrounded by water which finally changed into vapor and mist, and that whoever ventured far out into the misty clouds fell through and went—heaven knows where!

In the quaint old Italian city of Genoa was born a little boy named Christopher Columbus, who was to change all this, and be the innocent cause of much suffering to the descendants of the races who had been visited by the Golden Hearted. When a mere lad at school, he was greatly interested in boats, and he not only studied geography and history, but read all the books of travel he could find, and dreamed night and day of a great long voyage he was going to make on the ocean some time. He did not waste his time fishing and playing on the beach like other boys, but picked up the chips that washed ashore and examined them very carefully, because he believed that if there was an unknown land some where in the west, that the waves would bring something ashore from there. He was really quite an old man before he found anything, but one day he picked up some strange chips at Cadiz that had been cut by hand, and then he knew he was right.

Sailors always do have wonderful tales to tell about the sea, and in those days they were so superstitious that they were sure that there were huge monsters living in the distant waters just waiting to eat up any sailor foolish enough to venture near them. There was not one of them willing to listen to Columbus, when he tried to explain that the earth is round like an orange, and that we live on the outside of it. He said to them repeatedly:

"If we sail west steadily, we shall in time arrive back at the place from which we started." Finally, not only the sailors, but the people in the streets pointed their fingers at him and said:

"There goes the crazy old man, who thinks the world is as round as an apple."

The more he talked and reasoned and argued and even drew maps to prove that he was right, the more everybody shook their heads and called him crazy.

Columbus was about to give up in despair because he was very poor, and there seemed to be no way by which he could demonstrate that his theory of the shape of the earth was correct.

And now comes a curious coincidence.

He was a very devout Christian, and felt certain that the inhabitants of this strange country in the west had never heard of our God nor of his beloved son Jesus, and his heart was fired with zeal to reach these poor heathens and tell them the story of the Christ.

About this time some influential friend secured an audience for him with the King of Portugal, but it did no good to tell his story to the rich monarch, who was neither of a scientific nor a religious turn of mind, and he might as well have talked to the wind. Utterly discouraged Columbus decided to go to Spain, which is a near neighbor of Portugal, and see if he could not induce the famous King Ferdinand and Isabella, the queen, to give him boats to make his longed-for voyage. The queen especially was very pious and was much interested in Columbus' story about the heathens, but the ministers of her court laughed at Columbus and said:

"It is a foolish dream which can never be carried out."

Almost heart-broken Columbus silently turned his back on the Spanish capital and walked a long way to a seaport called Palos, where there was a queer old convent in which strangers were made welcome by the kind monks living in it. Knocking upon the gate, he said to the porter:

"Will you please give me a bit of bread and a drink of water."

Fortunately, the prior, a learned man and an intimate friend of Queen Isabella came along, and was quick to see that Columbus was no common beggar. He invited him in, and after listening quietly and thoughtfully to his visitor's plan of crossing the ocean to convert the heathen to Christianity, he borrowed a mule and rode miles across the country to the castle where the Queen was staying and persuaded her to help Columbus.

"It is your duty," he said. "God has given you riches and many blessings that you may assist your fellow men, and these strange people know nothing of our God, and they need teachers to help them find the right way of living."

Queen Isabella was so impressed with what he said that she immediately petitioned the Royal Treasurer to give Columbus money to make his voyage of discovery.

"Your majesty, there is no money to spare," was the polite answer of the Treasurer, who, like all the rest of the court, thought Columbus was a visionary dreamer if not crazy.

"Very well," she said. "I will pawn my crown jewels," and she did. This was a most noble and courageous act on her part, for a queen in those days was scarcely considered dignified or respectable without splendid crown jewels to wear on public occasions, but she was bent upon sending the gospel of Christ to the heathen in America. Does it not seem strange that the Golden Hearted and the Queen of Spain should be credited with the same desire to help the people of the Americas, and that they lived hundreds of years apart and could never have known of each other, and that one incident is a fact of history and the other only a legend?

But as soon as Columbus secured the money another difficulty arose. No sailor could be found who would risk his life on an unknown sea with such a crazy old man. Finally Queen Isabella had to promise liberty and full pardon to the convicts in the prisons before Columbus could get any one to go with him. It was a terrible thing for him but he had a brave heart, and the monks from the convent at Palos sent some of their number with him to teach the natives.

On and on, the three caravels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and Nina, sailed without finding land, until their provisions were getting low and the crews of convicts were about to mutiny and kill Columbus. In order to keep them quiet he told them wonderful stories of the riches of this land they were trying to find.

"You can have all the gold, and silver, and precious gems you can carry," he promised them. In an instant you could see the cunning and greed in their wicked faces. They did not care whether the earth was round or flat, nor what became of the natives, if they only had gold, and then they would gather around Columbus and question him closely about the size of the nuggets and precious stones. Of course he could only guess at it, but he knew that to save his life he must say something, so he replied:

"I firmly believe that there are immense pieces of solid gold to be found there, and that it is abundant."

Some thought they would find it in lumps as big as a house, and they all expected to pick up hands full of gems just anywhere. Columbus had strained his eyes looking for the land until he was nearly blind, but one night he imagined he saw a glimmer of light ahead. Where there was light there must be land, he thought. So he called one of the sailors to him and asked him what he saw.

"A light! a light!" cried the sailor joyfully. But it was not until nearly two o'clock in the morning that the commander of one of the other boats started the cry:

"Land! Land ahead!"

You can imagine what excitement there was on all the caravels, and how thankful Columbus was. The padres gathered around him, and as he sprang ashore, he dropped on his knees and stooped and kissed the ground. Even the sailors forgot about the gold while he and the padres prayed and thanked God for giving mankind a new world.

Immediately the flag of Spain was planted and the land claimed for King Ferdinand and Isabella, but wonderful indeed were the things surrounding them. Men and women of a bronze color crowded around them and offered them strange, but delicious fruits and flowers and brought them food and water. In his first letter to Queen Isabella, Columbus said of them:

"There is not in all the world a better people nor a better land. Their converse is ever sweet and gentle, and is accompanied by a smile. They truly love their neighbor as themselves."

Finding them docile and kind the padres set about teaching them, and the simple natives were very willing listeners. It was quite a long time before they could understand each other well, but the padres told the story of the Christ the first time they held a service, which was on a Sunday. Remembering the precepts of the Golden Hearted, the faces of the natives lighted up understandingly when they heard the words of Jesus which bade them be loving and kind to each other, and they nodded their heads and exclaimed:

"El Dorado! El Dorado!"

At least that is what the ignorant convict sailors thought they said. The words "El Dorado" in Spanish, which was their mother tongue, meant "The Golden," or "The Gilded One." We know they were eager and greedy to find gold and that they had been told to help themselves freely to all they could get, so they immediately began to question the simple natives.

"Yes, yes; we have plenty of gold," the natives said, in surprise, because they did not value it at all, except for ornaments, and they ran to fetch some for their visitors. When they saw how glad it made the sailors, they were happy and content as a lot of children, and they not only brought all they had, but told where there was plenty more to be found.

"Bimini, the Fountain of Youth"

WHEN Columbus sailed back to Spain and told the story of his wonderful discoveries the people did not believe him at first, but when he showed them the gold and silver ornaments, and the strange red men, they were so amazed that they forgot even to ask questions.

The news was so startling that it simply took their breath away and they stared at each other stupidly. Then they said in awe-stricken whispers:

"How can such things be? Is the world coming to an end? Are we going to die? Or are we crazy? Maybe our ears and eyes are fooling us."

But Columbus only smiled and said:

"My friends, you see I was right. The earth is round, and I have not only found India with its untold riches, but I have brought some of its people home with me."

And that is why today we call the red men Indians. Columbus did not know that he had discovered a new continent, so it was natural for him to speak of the natives as Indians. And I am sure you will pity him when I tell you that he died without ever knowing the difference.

All Europe was in a fever of excitement over his voyage, and it was not long before he fitted out other vessels and sailed across the ocean again to find the northwest passage which he believed would shorten the route to India. Rich men, and learned ones, were ready to go with him, and the sailors expected to find gold and precious stones scattered all over the ground. Every word that the convicts told them about El Dorado they thought meant gold, and the wildest and most exaggerated stories were soon in everybody's mouth.

The padres, too, were enthusiastic over the prospect of converting the heathen, but nobody took the trouble to find out what the Indians believed about God. Every one misunderstood the meaning of El Dorado and never dreamed that there had been such a teacher as the Golden Hearted, or that the Indians already knew how to be brotherly and kind.

Even the most learned men in those days were ready to accept the existence of a mythical city called Cathay as true.

They thought it was situated somewhere between the island of Newfoundland and Florida, where they expected to find the spice groves. Another story very common in Europe said that there was among the beautiful summer isles of the west, one that conferred immortality and was spoken of as the Island of Perpetual Youth. Among those whose imagination was fired by this romance was a brave knight named Ponce de Leon, who was Columbus' companion on his second voyage. He did not care for the gold of the new world, for he was already rich, but he was old, and he wanted to renew his youth. King Ferdinand commissioned him Governor of Porto Rico, but he soon tired of it, and was determined to discover the magic spring.

"For what reason should I stay here and lord it over these half-naked savages," he said to his relatives and friends when they tried to dissuade him from undertaking such a perilous search. "Let us go where we can bathe in those enchanted waters and be young once more. I need it and so will you before very long."

"But how do you know there is such a place?" they asked.

"By hearing the full particulars of an old Indian who went there and washed himself and drank from the spring until he was restored to youth and vigor. Let us go and be like him."

To find this new marvel he set sail with three brigantines, and the adventurers with him floated over the summer sea, as men bent upon pleasure, and to whom time was long and burdened with no serious duties. They sailed from island to island touching here and there as fancy led them. They sought the safest and pleasantest coves, where the shades were deepest in the noonday sun, and the waters coolest; where the fruits were the sweetest, the Indians most friendly and their women the loveliest. At last they came to an inlet which led invitingly up among wooded banks and flowering valleys. Here the old knight said:

"Let us disembark and strike inland. My heart tells me that we have found the Fountain of Youth."

"Nonsense," said his younger kinsman, "our way lies by water."

"Then leave me here with my men," he replied, and after an angry discussion five men, long past middle age, and who had come with him from Spain, were left on shore. The first thing they did was to climb to the top of a hill and set up a cross which they had brought with them. As soon as it was in place they all removed their helmets and prayed before it. One of the men said to him:

"The ground is pawed up as if cattle ranged here, and this path has been trod by human feet."

"You are right," said Ponce de Leon, "lead the way and we will follow."

Taking the path they met about fifty Indian bowmen, who seemed to their startled vision like a whole company of giants, but, who proved to be of a very friendly disposition.

The grizzled old knights were anxious to inquire about the fabled Fountain, so they gave the Indians strings of gay-colored beads, and some little bells. In return they received an arrow, as a token of good will. After a long parley the bowmen turned back to their huts. "We will bring you food in the morning," they said, and at daybreak they appeared again bringing plenty of fish, roots and fruits. When they saw that the men were chilly from the cold night air, they said to each other:

"Let us carry our brothers to our homes where they can get warm."

"But they will suffer on the way," said the chief. "Go before us and build big fires and we will stop at each one to rest our weary arms."

The Spanish knights did not know what to make of this kind of treatment, but they offered no resistance when the stalwart warriors took them on their backs and started through the woods. The Indians carried them very carefully, and at last set them down before the doors of their huts where the women brought them food and drink.

"I wonder what they intend to do with us," said the knights among themselves. On hearing this remark Ponce de Leon replied:

"It is just possible that they will offer us as a sacrifice, for it is quite plain that they think we are supernatural beings."

"Let us get away from them as quickly as we can," they said, fearing that something terrible would happen.