llowed, drew every other second the cigar from
his lips to inspirit them with those pious ejaculations ... which
earned for the pious Spaniards of the sixteenth century the
uncharitable imputation of being the most abominable swearers in Europe.

"... A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zamboes, naked, emaciated, scarred
with whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists,
toiled upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket
held up by a strap which passed across their foreheads. Yeo's sneer
was but too just; there were not only old men and youths among them,
but women; slender young girls, mothers with children running at their
knee; and at the sight, a low murmur of indignation rose from the
ambushed Englishmen, worthy of the free and righteous hearts of those
days, when Raleigh could appeal to man and God, on the ground of a
common humanity, in behalf of the outraged heathens of the New World.

"But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden
which made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches who
bore it. Each basket contained a square package of carefully corded
hide; the look whereof friend Amyas knew full well.

"'What's in they, Captain?'

"'Gold!' And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily
forward, and such a rustle followed that Amyas, in the very face of
detection, had to whisper:

"'Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet.'"

The muskets and long-bows of the stout Englishmen avenged the wrongs of
this pitiable caravan, although there was no help for a vast multitude
of Indians who were put to death with devilish torments by their
conquerors. But the legend of the El Dorado still survived and it
spread like an avenging spirit. "Transplanted by the over-excited
imagination of the white man, the vision appeared like a mirage
enticing, deceiving and leading men to destruction, on the banks of the
Orinoco, and the Amazon, in Omagua and Parime." The conquest of Bogota
made them believe that the gilded man and his golden kingdom were
somewhere just beyond. The licentiate, Juan de Castellanos, wrote a
poem which was published in 1589, telling of the legend as it had
existed in Quito in the days of the _Conquistadores_.

"When with that folk came Annasco,
Benalcazar learned from a stranger
Then living in the city of Quito,
But who called Bogota his home,
Of a land there rich in golden treasure,
Rich in emeralds gl