EL DORADO, pron. (.16-rii'DO (Sp., the gilded). A term applied. first to a south Ameri can king said to cover his body annually with gold-dust and bathe in a sacred lake, then to a fabled golden city. and filially to a fabled country abounding, to an almost inconceivable degree in gold and precious stones. The legend, whose origin has never been satisfactorily ac for, took many variant forms. while the mythieal king and his equally mythical dominions were shifted kith the utmost facil ity from one part of the continent to an other. The story tired the imaginations of the gold hungry Spaniards, who expended vast sums in sending out exploring parties, most of which returned decimated by privations. fatigue, and disease. The most celebrated expeditions were those of Diego de t1rdaz (1531). whose lieuten ant. _Ma rtinez. claimed to have visited n golden city, called Omoa, and to have been entertained by 'El Dorado' himself and of Orcllana (1510 41 1 • In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh took up the search and described the city as on an island in `Parima' Lake tin G'ilianti). which for over two
centuries was put clown on the maps. Milton's lines will be recalled: -Guiana, whose great city (terson's sons Call El Dorado." Lost, vi. 410, 411.
The name has since been applied to any place abounding in gold or in opportunities for acquir ing sudden wealth, and. more specifieally. to a in California and a city in Colorado. In 1 itera tina----and especially in poet ry—f reqnent references have been made to the legend, the most celebrated of which is probably that in Voltaire's ('tou/it/c. ells. xcii.. xviii. Consult: Markham, Srarch for El Dorn do(London. 1861) ; Van lieu vel, El Dorado (New York. 1844) Von Langegg, El Dorado (Leipzig, 1SSS) : and Bandelier, The Gildol Nan (New York, 1S93).