The Stories of El Dorado

The Aztecs did not help them any because they no longer looked upon them as sent from Heaven but as ruthless destroyers borne along on the backs of fierce animals swift as the wind, and carrying weapons in their hands that scattered death and destruction everywhere. The Aztecs learned to hate the Spaniards bitterly, and when we came to study their history we shall know why. Even their own historians do not pretend to deny that they fell upon the poor Aztecs sword in hand and robbed them of all the treasures they had, besides taking their lands away from them.

Some say that Francisco Pizarro was a cousin of Hernando Cortez who conquered the Aztecs, but all agree that he was an ignorant swineherd, who could neither read nor write, and whose parents were not respectable. While he was not actually a convict he belonged to the low class, and the men going with him to search for the new El Dorado among the Children of the Sun, were really no better. Cortez had some hidalgoes, cavalliers and knights with him because men of good family often came to the Americas on the first voyages after Columbus, but Pizarro collected a band of cut-throat adventurers who were just as greedy and ignorant as he was. All the exploring they did was simply to search for gold, and they did not care what methods they used to get it. The simple natives with their naked defenseless bodies, and bows and arrows were no match for men covered with steel armor, mounted on horseback and armed with guns and cannon. Balboa had already found the Pacific Ocean, and Pizarro knew that the Children of the Sun lived in that direction, so he rigged out a vessel and sailed along the coast trying to find them. At the first place he landed the natives said to him:

"Why do you not stay at home and till your own land instead of roaming about to rob others who have never harmed you?"

But the savages wore some heavy gold ornaments, and Pizarro asked eagerly:

"Have you more of this?"

"Yes, we have a little more," they said, and as they were weighing some of the metal their chief struck the scales with his fist, scattering the nuggets all over the floor.

"If this is what you prize so much that you are willing to risk your lives to attain it, I can tell you of a land where they eat and drink out of vessels of gold, and where there are great quantities to be had for the asking."

"Where is this rich country?"

"It is ten days journey toward the south and is ruled by the Child of the Sun."

The Spaniards were nearly mad with joy because now they said:

"All our fond dreams are about to be realized." They were in such a good humor that they gave the natives some glass beads and some live chickens. When they turned the rooster loose, he crowed, and then the simple natives clapped their hands in glee, and asked:

"What is it saying?"

It sounded as if the rooster said:

"How do you do, sir!" which the natives thought was very funny indeed. Then they wanted to know what the cannon said. One of the men set up a target and fired at it shivering the board into fine splinters. The loud noise, the flash of smoke and powder, frightened the poor natives nearly to death. Some of them fell flat on their faces, and others ran into the woods as fast as they could go, screaming:

"Our good Manco-Capac is coming back to us angry."

That night the old men huddled the terrified people together and said to them:

"Do you remember when the comet flamed through the sky; when the earthquake shook the land, and there was a rainbow around the moon?"

"I well remember," said one of the old men, "that a thunderbolt fell on one of the Incas' royal palaces setting it on fire, and I saw an eagle chased by several hawks hovering in the air over Cuzco. Our king saw it too, and while he looked at it the eagle fell dead at his feet."

"It is no use to resist these strangers," said an envoy from the Inca, who had arrived in time to hear the last statement. "Seven years ago when the father of our king died, he called his son to his bedside and told him that white and bearded strangers were coming to overturn the Empire. And as you know, our great oracle has foretold the return of Manco-Capac at the close of the twelfth dynasty of the Incas. That day is at hand, so do not quarrel with the strangers."

No one showed a disposition to disobey him, and in a short time he stood before Pizarro saying:

"I bring you greetings from the Inca, Child of the Sun, who rules this land. He wishes me to ask why you come, and from what country."

"Our home is far across the sea," responded Pizarro, "and we serve a rich and powerful prince who has heard of the Child of the Sun, and sends us to pay our respects to him."

This was not the truth for the King of Spain knew nothing whatever of Pizarro's wicked intentions, nor did he know about Cortez either until long after poor Montezuma was dead and his country laid waste. But when men turn out to be wholesale robbers they do not care whether they tell the truth or not.

"Our Inca is at his favorite baths and wishes to know when you will arrive, so that he may provide suitable refreshments for you."

"We will come at once," said Pizarro.

"It would be better to wait a few days," said the king's messenger. "Our Inca is keeping a sacred fast, and we cannot disturb him until it is finished." The Spaniards had no respect for the king's wishes or his privacy, so they made ready to follow the messenger. While they were dividing the presents of llamas, sheep and gold goblets among themselves some of the soldiers said:

"This dog of a king may have thousands of followers. What can a handful of men like we are, do against so many? Suppose they should try to fight us?"

Pizarro happened to overhear them and replied:

"Let every one of you take heart, and go forward like a good soldier. God ever protects his own, and will humble the pride of the heathen and bring him to a knowledge of the true faith—the great end and object of this conquest."

It was the first time he had spoken of conquest, but the soldiers remembered the complete success of Cortez in Mexico and only needed to be told that the natives were to be Christianized to make them certain that the home authorities would not interfere with them, so they shouted:

"Lead on! wherever you think best we will follow with good will."

The few padres in the company were sincere in their wish to teach the natives and so was the King of Spain, but neither of them could control the actions of such men as Pizarro and his adventurers, now ready to pounce down on the mild and inoffensive people like a band of hungry wolves. When they got up on the top of the mountain and looked down, the landscape had the appearance of a huge checker-board cut into squares by canals and evergreen hedges. A wide river rolled through the meadows, like a narrow silver ribbon, while across the valley were the famous hot baths with steam and vapor rising from them in the clear air. Along the slope of the hills a white cloud of tents covered the ground for several miles, where the Child of the Sun, and his court were encamped.

Pizarro with banners streaming and the sparkle of armor glittering in the sun, galloped into the city with blare of trumpets and lances fixed. The Inca was in a camp near by, but the rude Spaniards broke in upon his fast, and a brother of Pizarro almost rode him down with his horse. Giving the bridle a sudden jerk he brought the horse to his haunches, so close to the Inca, that the horse snorted with fear, but the brave king did not move a muscle, although he had never seen a white man in armor nor a horse before in his life. Seeing that he could not frighten him Pizarro's brother said haughtily:

"What is your royal will? My brother desires that you visit him."

Without raising his eyes from the ground where he had kept them as a mark of respect to his visitor, the Inca smiled and said:

"Tell your captain, that I am keeping a fast, which will end tomorrow morning. I will then visit him with my chieftains. In the meantime let him occupy the public buildings on the square till I come, when I will order what is to be done."

Turning to his attendants he continued:

"Give our brothers food and drink, and have their quarters made ready for them."

That night Pizarro put all his cannon in place and boldly planned to take the Inca prisoner in his own pleasure garden. He ordered his soldiers to hide in the plaza, and wait until the Inca arrived. As soon as he was in the great square they were suddenly to spring out and put the natives to the sword, and capture their king.

It was late in the day before the Inca got all his court in splendid array, and then he sent word to Pizarro that he was coming in state.

"I am much pleased to hear it," said Pizarro. "Let your king come anyway he will; he shall be received as a friend and brother. Let him sup with us and sleep in our quarters tonight."

When once in motion the Inca's retinue had on so many gold ornaments that they blazed like the sun. Some wore showy stuffs in white and red with gold and silver embroidery, while others were dressed in white and carried silver maces in their hands. The Inca wore the royal borla, or crown on his head, with the Quetzal feathers in the back and the long red fringes across the forehead. Over him was a canopy representing a rainbow, to show that he was a Child of the Sun, and a follower of Manco-Capac, who we know was the Golden Hearted. He was seated on a gold throne which was placed in a litter and carried by four noble youths, in gorgeous liveries. Around his neck was a splendid gold necklace set with large emeralds. Looking around and not seeing any one the Inca asked in surprise:

"Where are the strangers?"

At this moment a padre came forward and demanded that he give up his power and become a subject of Spain. He also told the king that he must become a convert to Christianity. The eyes of the Inca flashed fire as he replied:

"I will be no man's tributary. Your prince may be great; I do not doubt it when I see that he has sent his subjects so far across the waters. I am willing to hold him as a brother. As for my faith, I will not change it. My God still lives in the heavens and looks down on his children. By what authority do you make such demands upon me?"

The padre handed the Inca a bible but as the thought of the insult offered came over him, the Inca threw it to the ground and said angrily:

"Tell your comrades that they shall give me an account of their doings in my country. I will not go from here until they have made me full satisfaction for the wrongs they have committed."

A soldier turned to Pizarro and said:

"Do you not see that while we stand here wasting our breath in talking to this dog full of obstinate pride that the fields are filling with Indians. Let us set on at once."

Pizarro saw that the hour had come, and waving a white scarf which was the appointed signal he and his soldiers sprang into the square, shouting the old war cry of Cortez:

"Santiago! and at them!"

The poor natives in their holiday dress and fine jewelry were wholly unarmed, because they were coming to make a visit, and had no way to defend themselves. When they tried to escape they found they were hemmed in on all sides by the stone buildings facing the plaza, and nobody knows how many thousands of them were killed. They were stunned by the roar of the cannon, choked by the smoke, trampled under the horses' feet, and their naked bodies hacked to pieces with swords.

The Spaniards seemed bent upon killing the Inca, but his loyal subjects caught hold of the horses' bridles and saddle blankets, and even the legs of their riders to prevent them from hitting the Inca. Some offered their own bodies to the lances—anything to save the king who was stunned and bewildered. As the men who were carrying him were killed, the litter lurched to one side and he fell to the ground. Instantly the imperial borla, or crown, was snatched from his head; his hands were securely tied, and he was hustled, a prisoner, into a building nearby. Then the soldiery robbed and pillaged as much as they pleased, even carrying off the plate from the Inca's table.

Realizing that it was gold that the Spaniards wanted, the Inca began at once to try to buy his freedom.

"I will cover the floor of this room with gold if you will release me," he said, to Pizarro. Seeing that the soldiers smiled at this, he added:

"I will fill the room full, as high as I can reach," standing on tip-toe and stretching his arm against the wall. Pizarro agreed to accept that amount of gold, but demanded double that amount of silver, and would only allow the Inca two months' time to collect it in. The Spaniards kept close watch over him, and as soon as the amount was all paid in, Pizarro accused the unhappy captive of trying to stir up an insurrection. The Inca was surprised and indignant; saying:

"You have me in your power. Is not my life at your disposal? What better security have you for my fidelity? It is very far to my capital at Cuzco, but that you may be satisfied that I am proceeding in good faith, send some of your own people there."

The Spaniards sacked and pillaged Cuzco when they got there, taking seven hundred plates of gold from the walls of the temple dedicated to the Golden Hearted. Besides this, there were heavy cornices of gold, fountains, birds, fruit, vegetables, tables, statues, slabs, basins and panels of pure gold; which, when melted down made millions of dollars.

Never before did anybody in the wide world pay such a ransom. But Pizarro had no intention of setting the Inca free. Pretending to be very suspicious, he suddenly appeared before the Inca, and said:

"What new treason is this you are meditating against me? Me, who has been so brotherly and kind to you?"

"Why do you mock me," replied the Inca. "Am I not a captive in your hands? How could I conceive such a design as you speak of when I would be the first victim? You little know my people, if you think they would attempt such a thing against my will."

Pizarro was determined to get rid of him, so he trumped up twelve charges against him, and, after a mock trial, sentenced the helpless Inca to be burned at the stake.

When told of his fate, the poor king said to Pizarro, with tears streaming down his face:

"What have I, or my children done, that I should die like this? And from your hands—you who have received only benefit and kindness from me and my people."

The doom of the Inca was sounded by trumpet in the same square he had innocently entered to visit his strange white brother, and two hours after sunset he was led out by torch-light and burned to death.

To make sure that there was no danger of an uprising in the distant parts of the country, Pizarro sent an officer to finish collecting the ransom and find out the actual condition. While he was gone Pizarro had the Inca executed. When the officer returned, he said:

"I have met with nothing but kindness on the way. There has never been any attempt at an uprising."

And this was the truth.

The Gilded Man

THERE were none willing to say "God forgive him," is what history tells us of the end of Pizarro, whose throat was cut by some of the men he quarreled with over the treasures they had taken from the Children of the Sun, and I do not believe that any one was ever sorry that he perished like a wretched outcast. Of course, one of his brothers had heard of El Dorado, and he began to inquire closely of the Indians whether there really was such a person.

"Yes, there is," he was told, "and this chief smears himself all over with a sweet-smelling gum and sprinkles his body with fine gold-dust until he looks like a shining statue."

"Where does this chief live?"

"Not far from here, and his people are very rich in gold and emeralds."

This was what the Spaniards wanted to hear, and the Children of the Sun hoped by this means to get rid of their hated conquerors. We remember the visit of the Golden Hearted to the Zipa of the Muscas, and we see, by the unfriendly feeling of their neighbors, that they were still quarrelsome.

"We will go and find the Valley of the Gilded Man," said the brother of Pizarro, to his soldiers, who were getting tired of being idle. "I am told that there are wealthy regions to the north, east, and south of us, where the people go about covered with gold-dust, and where there are no mountains or woods."

This pleased the greedy adventurers very much, and it was not long before there was quite an army of them ready to start. But they did not know that they were going into a country where there were cannibals—savages ready to kill and eat every one of them, and that they fought with poisoned arrows. The Muscas were obliged to fight these people, but they traded with them, because there was no gold in their own land, and they prized it highly as an offering in honor of the Golden Hearted. They had quantities of salt which they pressed into little round cakes, like sugar loaves, and carried over beaten paths to market. Besides this, they wove beautiful cotton cloth, and managed to get large quantities of gold and silver and emeralds by trading with the cannibals.

They had not forgotten what the Golden Hearted taught them about hammering the gold, or casting it into tasteful shapes, and they not only wore it for ornaments, but used it to decorate the outside and inside of their temples. It was near the anniversary of his departure, and there were many pilgrims from neighboring tribes who had come to cast emeralds into the lake at Gautavita in his honor. On the mountain tops surrounding the lake beacon lights were burning, and the sacred fires on the altars in the temples had never been allowed to go out. As each band of pilgrims came into the city, the Zipa welcomed them, saying:

"Tomorrow, comrades, we will go in solemn procession to the lake, and commemorate the departure of Bochica, and his purification afterward. We have made his heart very sad by our misdeeds, but from his home in the sun he can look down upon us, and see that we still adore and worship him."

The next day, at noon a solemn procession approached the lake. In the lead walked bronze-colored men, without any clothing, but whose bodies were covered with red paint, as a sign of deep mourning, and they wailed in a most sorrowful manner. Behind them were warriors decorated with gold and emeralds, wearing bright feathers in their gold head-dresses, and carrying mantles of jaguar skins over their arms. Some of them were singing, while others shouted joyfully or blew on horns and pipes, and conch shells. Close to them were priests in black robes, with white crosses on them, and tall black hats, like those worn by the wise men. In the rear was the Zipa riding in a kind of gilded wheelbarrow hung with disks of gold. His naked body had been anointed with a resinous gum, and covered all over with fine gold-dust.

Arrived at the shore, the Gilded Man and his companions stepped upon a balsa gay with streamers and loaded with flowers, and rowed out into the middle of the lake. There the Zipa, who was the Gilded Man, plunged into the water and washed off all the gold-dust. While he was doing this his companions, with music and singing, threw in the gold and emeralds they had brought out on the lake for that purpose. Coming back to the shore the Zipa said:

"Do no more work for this day, but make merry with singing, dancing and feasting, as if the gentle, kind Bochica were with you again."

All this time Pizarro's brother, and his greedy soldiers, were wandering around in the mountains trying to find the Gilded Man. If they could have seen him covered with gold at the festival, they would probably have tried to skin him alive to get the gold dust on his body. One of the padres, who came to convert and teach the natives, writing to the king of Spain, said:

"I do not believe that the men taking part in the expeditions in search of the Gilded Man, would have tried so hard to get into Paradise."

Further on in his letter the padre describes the terrible hardships and suffering the men had to undergo. After telling about their failure to find El Dorado, he says:

"The men and officers returned to us nearly naked. In the warm rain their clothes had rotted on their backs, and were torn into shreds by the thickets they had crawled through on their hands and knees. Their feet were bare and wounded by the thorns and roots in the pathways, and their swords were not only without sheaths, but were eaten up with rust. Hunger compelled them to kill and eat their horses and dogs."

While this had been going on in Peru, the King of Spain was busy sending out men for the same purpose. The story of the Gilded Man was known over all Europe, and other nations, besides Spain, were trying to find him. Some German bankers had loaned the king large sums of money for the privilege of searching for El Dorado, and the first white men to visit Gautavita was a band of Germans sent out by the banking house. They wanted slaves as well as gold, and were just as merciless and cruel as the Spaniards. In fact, any man having money enough to buy boats, or to provision men, stole off into the woods and went in search of the Gilded Man. The country was overrun with armed bands of adventurers who were ready to commit any kind of crime for the sake of gain. Whoever offered resistance was killed, and they were suspicious and jealous of each other, as well as of the Indians.

After Pizarro's brother made such a miserable failure, and had to endure such bitter hardships one would expect his friends and associates to be careful about making another venture, but they knew of the German invaders, and then it was a race to see who would get hold of the Gilded Man first. Either side would have killed him and burned and pillaged the city, so the Indians had learned to distrust and hate all white men, and they made war on both the Spaniards and Germans whenever they had an opportunity.

A young Spanish lieutenant, named Quesada, was the real conqueror of the Muscas, and, as might have been expected, he murdered the Zipa and robbed Gautavita, and every other village in the kingdom. He was as hard-hearted with his men, as he was with the Indians, and after five hundred of them had died from exposure on the way, they found themselves surrounded on all sides by overflowing rivers. Weeping and dejected they sought Quesada, saying:

"We beseech you to send us back to Peru. Instead of gold, only hunger, misery and death await us here. The Gilded Man only exists in the distorted fancy of those who believe the lying tales of the Indians."

At this juncture they stumbled on to a path with huts, at intervals, by the wayside, filled with the white cakes of salt said to come from the home of the Gilded Man, and they also found some cotton cloth.

"We are on the right road at last," said Quesada, to his dispirited soldiery. "Prove faithful now, and we shall soon stand face to face with El Dorado." With a significant nod of the head, he added: "You know what that means to fearless men, like yourselves, and you can trust to the generosity of your captain for a rich reward."

The prospect of getting plenty of gold soon caused the men to forget all about their troubles, but the Zipa not only fought them stubbornly, but when he was finally compelled to abandon Gautavita, there was no treasure to be found. The Muscas had either buried all their gold and emeralds, or thrown them into the lake. Great, indeed, was the disappointment of the Spaniards, and for his own safety Quesada soon planned another expedition against a neighboring tribe of Indians. The strange chief was surprised and captured in the Council House, and with him perished all of the notable men of the tribe. The soldiers found some gold and some very fine emeralds, but when they went to sack the Temple of the Sun, which had a thatched roof, they carelessly set the dry leaves on fire, and burned all the plate and other treasures it contained. Bands of armed men rode hither and yon looking for the Zipa, whom they now believed to be the Gilded Man. He kept in very close hiding, and no amount of torture, or promises of reward could make his followers tell where he was, or where the gold ornaments and vessels were hidden.

"He is in the mountain fastnesses, where he has a house made of gold," declared some irresponsible Indians, glad to get rid of the cruel Spaniards.