rt stepped upon a
balsa, or raft made of rushes, and moved slowly out to the middle.
There the gilded one plunged into the deep water and washed off his
precious covering, while with shouts and music the assembled throng
threw their offerings of gold and jewels into the lake. Then the
worshipers returned to the village for dancing and feasting.[1] In the
last decade of the fifteenth century, or while Columbus was making his
voyages, the tribe of Guatavita was conquered by a stronger community
of the Muysca race, and the new rulers, being of a thriftier mind, made
an end of the extravagant ceremony of el dorado. It is therefore
assumed that the gilded man had ceased to be, full thirty years before
the Spaniards first heard of him at the coast.

Humboldt became interested in the legend during his South America
travels and reported:

"I have examined from a geographical point of view the expeditions on
the Orinoco, and in a western and southern direction in the eastern
side of the Andes, before the tradition of El Dorado was spread among
the conquerors. This tradition had its origin in the kingdom of Quito
where Luiz Daza, in 1535, met with an Indian of New Granada who had
been sent by his prince, the Zipa of Bogota, or the Caique of Tunja, to
demand assistance from Atahuahalpa, the last Inca of Peru. This
ambassador boasted, as was usual, of the wealth of his country; but
what particularly fixed the attention of the Spaniards who were
assembled with Daza was the history of a lord who, his body covered
with gold dust, went into a lake amid the mountains.

"As no historical remembrance attaches itself to any other mountain
lake in this vicinity, I suppose the reference to be made to the sacred
lake of Guatavita, in the plains of the Bogota, into which the gilded
lord was made to enter. On the banks of this lake I saw the remains of
a staircase, hewn in the rock, and used for the ceremonies of ablution.
The Indians told me that powder of gold and golden vessels were thrown
into this lake as a sacrifice to the _Adoratorio_ de Guatavita.
Vestiges are still found of a breach made by the Spaniards in order to
drain the lake.... The ambassador of Bogota, whom Daza met in the
kingdom of Quito, had spoken of a country situated towards the east."

The latter reference means that the legend had spread from coast to
coast. On the Pacific, the _conquistadores_ of Pizarro were for a time
too busily engaged in looting the eno