Ordaz, a
former companion of Cortez, had obtained in Spain a concession to
colonize the district then called Maranon,--a vaguely defined area
covering Venezuela, Guiana, and northern Brazil. He sailed from Spain in
1531, reached the Orinoco and sailed up that river to its falls. Then
he had to return, after two years of vainly trying to overcome the
obstacles before him. But on this expedition he heard that the Orinoco
had its source in a great lake, and that the road to that lake led
through a province called Meta, said to be fabulously rich in gold. On
the authority of Bandelier, there is no doubt that this story of Meta
was only an echo of the Dorado tale which had penetrated as far as the
tribes of the lower Orinoco.

Ordaz was followed in 1534 by Geronimo Dortal, who attempted to reach
Meta, but failed even to get up the Orinoco. In 1535 he tried to
penetrate overland from the northeast coast of Venezuela to Meta, but
made a complete failure. These attempts from Venezuela, as Bandelier
shows, finally localized the home of the Dorado by limiting it to the
northwestern part of the continent. It had been vainly sought elsewhere,
and the inference was that it must be in the only place left,--the high
plateau of New Granada.

The conquest of the plateau of New Granada, after many unsuccessful
attempts which cannot be detailed here, was finally made by Gonzalo
Ximenez de Quesada in 1536-38. That gallant soldier moved up the
Magdalena River with a force of six hundred and twenty men on foot, and
eighty-five horsemen. Of these only one hundred and eighty survived when
he reached the plateau in the beginning of 1537. He found the Muysca
Indians living in permanent villages, and in possession of gold and
emeralds. They made a characteristic resistance; but one tribe after
another was overpowered, and Quesada became the conqueror of New
Granada.

The treasure which was divided by the conquerors amounted to 246,976
_pesos de oro_,--about $1,250,000 now,--and 1,815 emeralds, some of
which were of enormous size and value. They had found the real home of
the Gilded Man,--and had even come to Guatavita, whose people made a
savage resistance,--but of course did not find him, since the custom had
been already abandoned.

Hardly had Quesada completed his great conquest when he was surprised by
the arrival of two other Spanish expeditions, which had been led to the
same spot by the myth of the Dorado. One was led by Federmann, w