ning which reports were current early in
the sixteenth century took place at the sacred lake of Guatavia. There
lived on this plateau, in what is still known as the province of
Cundinamarca, small village communities of the Muysca Indians, somewhat
civilized and surrounded on all sides by debased and savage tribes.
They worshiped the sun and moon, performed human sacrifices, and adored
striking natural objects, as was the custom in Peru.

The numerous lakes of the region were holy places, each regarded as the
home of a particular divinity to which gold and emeralds were offered
by throwing them into the water. Elsewhere than at Guatavita jewels
and objects wrought of gold have been discovered in the process of
draining these little lakes. Guatavita, however, is most famous of all
because here originated the story of "_el hombre dorado_." This sheet
of water is a few miles north of the capital city of Santa Fe de
Bogota, more than nine thousand feet above sea level, in the heart of
the Cordilleras. Near the lake is still the village called Guatavita.

In 1490 the inhabitants were an independent tribe with a ruling chief.
They had among them a legend that the wife of one of the earlier chiefs
had thrown herself into the lake in order to escape punishment and that
her spirit survived as the goddess of the place. To worship her came
the people of other communities of the region, bringing their gold and
precious stones to cast into the water, and Guatavita was famed for its
religious pilgrimages. Whenever a new chief, or king, of Guatavita was
chosen, an imposing ceremonial was observed by way of coronation. All
the men marched to the lake in procession, at the head a great party
wailing, the bodies nude and painted with ocher as a sign of deep
mourning. Behind them were groups richly decorated with gold and
emeralds, their heads adorned with feathers, cloaks of jaguar skins
hanging from their shoulders. Many uttered joyful cries or blew on
trumpets and conch-shells. Then came the priests in long black robes
decorated with white crosses. At the rear of the procession were the
nobles escorting the newly-elected chief who rode upon a barrow hung
with disks of gold.

His naked body was anointed with resinous gums and covered with gold
dust so that he shone like a living statue of gold. This was the
gilded man, El Dorado, whose fame traveled to the coast of the
Caribbean. At the shore of the lake, he and his esco