We are, therefore, unable to agree with the distinguished American archzologist when he says that, after this time, °Transplanted by the over-excited imagination of the white men, the vision of the dorado appeared, like a mirage, enticing, deceiving, and leading men to destruc tion on the banks of the Orinoco and the Ama zon.* His °Gilded Man° had been located, and that part of the myth was buried. Subsequent explorations were planned to discover rich countries which were Eldorados only in the modern sense of the word; and we find that the word was used with nearly its present significa tion at the time when the Amazon River re ceived its name. The legend is especially note worthy in connection with the history of the Venezuelan settlement under the direction of the German Welsers. Having received the prov ince from the Spanish crown practically as a mortgage security for money loaned, Welser and his associates tried to recover the advances they had made from the revenues of the dis trict ; and since the coast lands were found to be less profitable than they had expected, they engaged in• one Eldorado expedition after another. Dalfinger, Federmann, and Von Speyer have been mentioned; before the utter ruin and failure of the colony at Coro, Von Hutten's expedition penetrated to Omagua, a region near the Amazon, west of Rio Negro and the Cassi quiare. The Spanish conquerors of Peru and Ecuador were led by the search for further stores of wealth to make the most important geographical discoveries east of the Andes. Gonzalo Pizarro set out from Quito to explore the forests (1539-42), hoping to find spices there, and also °wealthy regions in which the people went around adorned with gold.° His
lieutenant, Francisco de Orellana, with 53 men in a bark, becoming separated from the main body of the expedition, went on down the Amazon to its mouth. The Dominican Car vajal, Orellana's chronicler, relates that women took part in the fighting against the Spaniards, and that a captive Indian spoke of a tribe of Amazons rich in gold living north of the river. (Compare Prescott's