The Origin of the Legend of El Dorado

As the conquistadors first explored the Americas, they encountered people unlike any they had seen, each with their own distinct cultural markings. They wore resplendent feathered headdresses, elaborate body paint and tattoos, and various forms of body modification. But what became the obsession of the Spaniards was the natives’ ornate jewelry and adornments, made of precious stones, silver and gold.

Greed for these precious metals drove waves of conquistadors to sail for the New World. The pursuit of that wealth became justification for atrocities. As they ransacked villages and tombs, they used whatever violent means necessary to extract the whereabouts of rich kingdoms. The most lucrative of these scores were of the Aztecs and the Inca. The scale of this plunder was unprecedented, drawing in successive migrations of colonists in search of fortune. Further expeditions ventured ever deeper into the mainland, endlessly searching for yet another unexploited land.

This brings us to the story of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, who led a troop of soldiers up the Magdalena River Valley. As they ascended the Colombian highlands near Bogotá, they came upon a vast plateau dotted with villages extending over the horizon. This was the first European encounter with the Muisca, a thriving confederation of chiefdoms, with a population in the hundreds of thousands.

The Muisca were renowned for their intricately crafted goldwork and abundant emeralds. They were among the richest societies in all the New World. That wealth, however, became the impetus for their conquest. The plunder stolen by Jiménez de Quesada’s men nearly rivaled Francisco Pizarro’s sacking of the Inca, while employing similar military tactics. Fewer than a quarter of the soldiers ultimately survived to tell of what they had seen. Nonetheless, rumors of gold-filled villages began to spread and morph, inspiring the Legend of El Dorado, the Lost City of Gold.

Despite the Muisca’s central role in the origin of the fable of El Dorado , their story remains rarely told. While the conquistadors were meticulous chroniclers of their exploits, most documents detailing the conquest of the Muisca had been lost for centuries. In recent decades, a trove of colonial-era letters and manuscripts was rediscovered in the royal archives of Spain (Francis, 2007). Additionally, the “Epítome de la Conquista Del Nueva Rieno de Granada” (Summary of the Conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada) provides the most complete description of Muisca culture, religion, weapons, architecture, diet, and government. The author is unknown but is believed to be Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.

By piecing together these records, historians have traced the origin of El Dorado. These rare firsthand accounts describe these native societies prior to their collapse under colonial rule. The artifacts presented here include not only the Muisca, but also those from neighboring cultures of the Magdalena River Valley and the Colombian Cordillera, such as the Zenú, Tairona, Tolima, Tierradentro, and Quimbaya. They too shared a long tradition of goldwork, which helped inspire the myth of El Dorado.

Sections

• The Perilous Ascent of the Magdalena River
• Muisca Culture and Religion
• The Conquest of New Grenada
• Dividing the Spoils
• The Expanding Legend of El Dorado
• Sources

The Perilous Ascent of the Magdalena River

It was the 1530s, and Pedro Fernández de Lugo, the sickly governor of Santa Marta, was struggling to pay his debts. His colonists were establishing a foothold on a new land they called Tierra Firma (meaning “firm ground” or mainland). This was along the Caribbean coast of what we now know as Colombia. This initial expansion of the Spanish empire was costly, funded almost entirely through private ventures and authorized by the monarchy. Fernández had been appointed under the condition that he would invest in fortifying the burgeoning colony against skirmishes by pirates and hostile local tribes.

The Spaniards’ earlier raids on native settlements had already proven profitable. Regional cultures, such as the Zenú and Tairona, had a metallurgic tradition in crafting gold jewelry and other sacred objects. A friar accompanying the conquistador Pedro de Heredia observed: “No Indian woman was without… jewels, earrings, necklaces, crowns, rings for the lower lip…, fine well-cut gems, strings of beads. All the girls had four or six gold jewels around their neck… (Simón, 1626).”

Unlike the Europeans, the indigenous people valued this precious metal not for its financial worth, but for its spiritual significance. Their golden idol statues and jewelry would commonly accompany the deceased in burials, to journey with them into the afterlife. But for the Spanish tomb raiders, this easily stolen source of gold was beginning to run dry.

To help with his debts, Fernández de Lugo needed a new region to exploit. In the eastern section of Tierra Firma (modern-day Venezuela), a German-financed occupation was already probing deeper into the continent. Locals reported that their gold charms had been traded from people in the mountains. In 1531, a group of soldiers led by Diego de Ordaz sailed up the Orinoco River, searching for the source of the gold. They began to hear rumors of a rich land to the west. Named after the flooded river branch, they called this unknown destination the Kingdom of Meta. Was this an early reference to the land of the Muisca?

Not wanting to lose his claim to this unexplored land to the south, Fernández de Lugo commissioned an exploration up the Magdalena River in 1536, into the heart of the Colombian highlands. He selected a shrewd, young lawyer named Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada to lead the campaign. His negotiating skills would prove crucial in the resolution of this journey.

Jiménez de Quesada departed Santa Marta with 800 Spaniards, including 100 horsemen, accompanied by an unspecified number of native and Black slaves (Francis, 2007). This convoy of conquistadors was larger than both the Pizarro and Cortes expedition forces combined. It was initially authorized by the Spanish monarchy as a search for an overland route to Quito and the Pacific Ocean. But for most of the inexperienced young men who joined the expedition, it was fundamentally a search for gold and glory.

The expedition got off to a disastrous start. The plan was to split into two groups. Their cavalry and a division of soldiers traveled by land, while five brigantines sailed to the head of the Magdalena River. A storm struck near the river mouth, sinking two ships. The survivors from one of the shipwrecks were captured by Carib tribes known for their cannibalism (Hemming, 1978). The Spaniards refitted new vessels and managed to successfully breach the mouth of the Magdalena shortly thereafter.

Throughout their ascent dangers continued to mount. Local tribes hunted them using poison dipped arrows, inflicting festering wounds that usually proved fatal within days. The concoction was brewed with various recipes, commonly incorporating the venom of snakes or the skin secretions of toxic frogs. Others were eaten by caiman while crossing muddy tributaries. The greatest threat, however, came from various strains of tropical disease.

As they traveled further up the Magdalena Valley, the canyon walls became steeper, and the river became more treacherous. After eight months there was little to show for their efforts. By this time most of the men were sick, including Jiménez. Nearly 400 had already died since the expedition departed Santa Marta (Hemming, 1978).

They decided to wait out the heavy winter rains while smaller groups explored nearby tributaries. To the east they saw local traders carrying large blocks of salt, finely woven robes, and blankets from some unknown origin in the mountains. Jiménez sent a reconnaissance mission eastward, up towards the Opón River, in hopes of finding the source of these goods. The area became increasingly populated, and they began noticing gold and emeralds within the villages. They had reached the northern edge of the Muisca’s territory.

Overjoyed, the scouts returned to inform Jiménez of their success. While they were away, he had almost died from the pestilence sweeping their camp, but was now recovering. Abandoning their original goal of finding a path to the South Sea, Jiménez led 170 of his healthiest men up into the densely forested Atún mountains. Meanwhile, the sick stayed with the ships, along with two dozen others. They were instructed to wait for up to eight months for the expedition’s return. Shortly thereafter, however, illness and raids from local natives forced those who remained to retreat down river.

Muisca Culture and Religion

After a toilsome year of exploration, Jiménez de Quesada’s conquistadors crossed over a mountainous ridgeline, encountering a high-altitude plateau full of villages. They were awestruck by the scale of the Muisca’s thriving civilization. As they rode south the area became more populous, with settlements of thousands of intricately crafted houses. Modern attempts to estimate their population range from 300,000 to exceeding 1,000,000 (Francis, 2007).

Jiménez called the region Valle de los Alcázares, meaning Valley of the Castles, remarking that these were among the finest houses of the Indies. Their buildings were constructed with clay walls, wooden poles, reed roofs, and woven grass floors. Since these structures were perishable, little archeological evidence of their vast cities has been preserved (Drennan, 2008).

At an elevation of over 8,000 feet, the air was cooler than the sweltering lowlands, and mosquito-borne tropical illness was less of a concern. The farmland was lush and productive. The native people grew various New World crops, like maize, yuca, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, turnips, and protein-rich quinoa, often boiled together within stews. While they did not have the llamas and alpacas of the Andean people to the south, they did similarly raise guinea pigs for meat. Deer were also numerous, which the Spanish compared in numbers to cattle. While these were hunted for meat, they were generally reserved for nobility.

Muisca society was structured as a well-organized confederation of tribes. In the north were the Zaque, whose capital was Hunza (Tunja). And to the south were the more powerful Zipa, ruled from Bogotá. Their leaders adopted these regions as their surnames. Each ruled over numerous other local chiefdoms. Their languages derived from the Chibcha dialect, related to ethnic groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Kogui, Ijka, Wiwa, and Kankuamo) and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy (U'wa) (Drennan, 2008). These Muisca groups were rivals, but would sometimes unite in fighting battles, such as against their longtime enemies to the south, the Panche.

The chiefs wore lavish adornments of gold, including nose ornaments, ear pendants, chest plates, crowns, and armlets. Their metal workers would adjust the ratios of different metals to create alloys of varying strength and color (Martinon-Torres & Uribe-Villegas, 2015). Despite the abundance of gold held and worked by the Muisca, they did not mine it the gold. It was instead traded from neighboring tribes, such as the southern land of Neiva, in exchange for Muisca salt blocks and cotton cloth.

Another common Muisca gold object was the votive offerings, small anthropomorphic idols or charms, often created with a lost-wax technique. Wax was first rolled and shaped into figures, encased in a mold of charcoal powder and clay. The mold was then heated, allowing the wax to melt and evaporate, then filled with molten gold (Villegas & Torres, 2012). Another production method involved carving a template in stone and pressing gold sheets into it.

The Muisca were a deeply spiritual and ritualistic people. They venerated the natural world and the elemental and ancestral spiritual beings that resided therein. Golden votive offerings were placed in their many religious temples, each devoted to their various deities. Certain mountains, forests, and lakes were also considered sacred. No trees were cut or resources collected from these sanctuaries. Offerings of gold figurines and emeralds would be made at these sites, buried within ceramic pots or dropped into lagoons.

In the Muisca belief system, as with other Andean cultures, offerings were necessary to appease various spiritual entities. Principal among their deities were the Sun God, Sué, and the Moon Goddess, Chía, viewed as celestial lovers. They also believed in naturalistic spirits that interceded on behalf of the sun and moon. In their temples they performed sacrificial rituals involving blood, water, and fire. These rituals sought to maintain a harmony with the universe and to renew its life-giving force. Aspects of this belief system is still held by some indigenous people of Colombia, such as the Kogi, descendants of the Tairona (Davis, 1996).

The Conquest of New Grenada

The more hospitable climate of Colombia’s highlands and the abundance of food allowed the remaining Spaniards to recover their health. They named this land the New Kingdom of Granada, as it reminded them of that southern region of Spain. In later decades, the term was used to describe the entire region of northern South America, spanning modern Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and northern Ecuador.

Jiménez and his soldiers spent the next two years conquering the Muisca’s territory. Initially, he instructed them to remain peaceful, attempting to earn the locals’ favor to learn the whereabouts of their gold. The conquistadors claimed that the natives thought the Europeans may have been “Sons of the Sun”, sent to punish them for their sins. Some of the Muisca tried to gift them first an old man and then some of their children, as offerings or as food, to appease them. The Spanish made it clear they weren’t interested in human sacrifices, but would accept gold and emeralds as tribute, which many natives generously provided.

Before long, the natives grew distrustful and began mounting skirmishes against the invaders. It was estimated that the Muisca would have been able to amass armies of 40,000-60,000 men (Epítome, 1539). But they feared the Spanish, not knowing what to make of them, and never having encountered men on horseback. They scattered on the battlefield when they were charged. This gave the Spaniards a decisive advantage, despite being vasty outnumbered.

One of the largest battles was launched by the southern chief, Bogotá, leading an army of six hundred. He was carried upon a litter by his subjects, while others shouldered the mummies of their ancestors. The Muisca warriors fought with atlatls, flinging darts, and with macanas—swords made from hard palm wood (Francis, 2007). These primitive weapons were no match for skilled Spanish horsemen, protected with chainmail, and brandishing long lances and Toledan steel swords (Hemming, 1978). The Muisca’s assault was decimated. Bogotá fled to a mountain hermitage, refusing to submit to Spanish authority or surrender his treasure. After learning his location, the Spanish launched a surprise attack. Bogotá tried to escape dressed as a commoner, but was mistakenly killed by the soldiers, who didn’t recognize who he was (Relación de Santa Marta, 1545).

A small band of Jiménez’s men then traveled north to the region of Sumindoco, near the capital of the northern Zaque. There they discovered the region’s richest emerald mines. These eight-sided gemstones were formed within sky- blue clay, growing in branch like clusters extending from slate. “Never, since the creation of the world, have so many been found in one place.” … “the indians perform all kinds of sorcery to help them find the emeralds. They drink and eat certain herbs, after which they reveal in which veins the miners will unearth the finest stones (Epítome, 1539).”

Upon their return, they informed Jiménez of the northern city of Tunja, the lord of which was said to possess houses full of gold. Jiménez launched an assault, captured their leader, Quemuenchatocha (Eucaneme), and killed an imposter who had posed as him (Quiminza). In the hours that followed, while looting his residence, they fought off multiple waves of attacks by Tunja’s warriors.

Next they traveled north to Sugamuxi (Sogamoso), the Muisca’s most sacred pilgrimage site, ruled by a spiritual leader by the same name. After their horsemen defeated a contingent of native warriors on the open plains, they reached the lavish city, which the Spanish referred to as the “Rome of the Chinchas”. Here most of the wealth of the entire Muisca conquest was recovered, including 72% of the fine gold, and 280 emeralds (Francis, 2007).

The richest of this holy city’s temples was dedicated to the deity Remichinchaguia. It was filled with idol statues and the mummies of their most famous warriors. While pillaging its sacred objects, two soldiers carelessly placed their torches upon the matted grass floor, setting the temple ablaze. Attempts to extinguish the flames failed. The sanctuary burned for five days. Forty thousand pesos of fine gold were recovered from the ashes. Later, the conquistador Nicholas Federman said that temple of Sugamuxi likely was the long-sought ‘House of Meta.’

After subduing the Muisca’s northern clans, Jiménez returned to Bogotá to search again for the deceased Zipa’s treasure. After repeated attempts to capture his successor, Sagipa, the new chief agreed to meet, seeking Spanish aid in fighting their enemies, the Panche. They were fierce warriors inhabiting the southern lowlands. They fought with long bows shooting poisoned-tipped arrows, slings, lances, and carrying tall shields, with a pocket in it for storing their various weapons. The Spaniard suffered more losses against the Panche than in all their battles with the Muisca.

In return for their help, the Spanish had expected Sagipa to finally reveal the location of the Bogotá’s hidden gold. When he claimed ignorance, the Spaniards then resorted to torture, which was also unfruitful. They then tried ransoming him for a room full of gold, as Pizarro had done with Atahaulpa. The natives offered other valuables, but not the gold the Spanish coveted. More torture followed. Sagipa eventually died from those wounds, and the treasure of Bogotá was never found.

Dividing the Spoils

Towards the end of the expedition, Jiménez’s forces encountered two other Spanish groups approaching their position. The first came from Venezuela, led by Nicholas Federman, during his search for the Kingdom of Meta. Another team then arrived from Quito under Sebastián de Belalcázar, who was fleeing his former commander, Francisco Pizarro.

Jiménez used his formidable legal skills to win over most of the rival troops, offering them encomiendas upon the Muisca’s fertile land, with the native people as their newly indentured farm workers. However, Belalcázar and Federman both also attempted to lay claim to the region. Their arrival forced Jiménez to end his campaign and travel back to Spain with the other commanders to settle the dispute in court.

Upon his return to Spain, Jiménez spent several years fighting legal battles, including claims to payment by the men he had left on the Magdalena River, and fines for the torture and death of the Muisca chief, Sagipa. Years later, after his legal issues were finally resolved, Jiménez de Quesada was eventually appointed as the first mayor of Santa Fe De Bogotá, which became the capital of their New Kingdom of Granada. Today, Bogotá remains the modern capital of Colombia. From 1556 to 1557, Jiménez went on to serve as governor of Cartagena, one of the most strategically important cities of Spain’s New World colonies.

The conquest of the Muisca was one of the most profitable of all the conquistadors’ expeditions in the New World, only second to Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca. Records of their plunder were meticulously tracked as it was seized, to be used later in dividing the spoils. The final haul was 200,000 gold pesos and 1,800 emeralds. Additional treasure may have been pocketed without being logged, but those who were caught faced harsh punishment, including death. As was typical, the “Royal Fifth” was paid to the Spanish monarchy. Santa Marta’s Governor, Pedro Fernández de Lugo, had died in the years that Jiménez was away, so his 10% share went to his heir. The rest was divided between the 173 soldiers who returned alive, with Jiménez de Quesada receiving an outsized share (Francis, 2007).

The Expanding Legend of El Dorado

Within pop-culture, El Dorado is often presented as the search for a land rich in gold. This is supported by a few of the early Spanish references, but the true origin of this story is more complex. The actual historical record doesn’t present a simple, unified narrative, but rather a legend that evolved over decades.

In 1534, while stationed in Quito, Sebastián de Belalcázar encountered a native emissary from these rich lands to the north, who he had briefly described as “Indio Dorado” (Golden Indian) without further detail in that initial account (Hemming, 1978). Perhaps this is when he first heard rumors of the rich cultures of the Magdalena River Valley? In 1539, his treasurer, Gonzalo de la Peña, wrote that the expedition left Popayán "in search of a land called El Dorado." This is the first known appearance of this phrase in the historical record, and was immediately prior to his encounter with Jimenez de Quesada and the Muisca.

References to El Dorado then became much more widespread in the years following the conquistadors’ convergence upon the land of the Muisca. In 1550, more than a decade after their conquest, Jiménez de Quesada wrote of the ongoing search for El Dorado:

“All the reports ... which set everyone's feet marching from the North Sea so excitedly ... later appeared to be the same thing, namely this kingdom of New Granada.”

However, other evidence suggests that the origin of this story stemmed not from a golden land, but with a golden man, whose body was anointed with gold dust. In 1541, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés wrote:

“They tell me that what they have learned from the Indians is that that great lord or prince goes about continually covered in gold dust as fine as ground salt. He feels that it would be less beautiful to wear any other ornament ... He washes away at night what he puts on each morning, so that it is discarded and lost, and he does this every day of the year ... The Indians say that this chief or king is a very rich and great ruler. He anoints himself every morning with a certain gum or resin that sticks very well. The powdered gold adheres to that unction ... until his entire body is covered from the soles of his feet to his head. He looks as resplendent as a gold object worked by the hand of a great artist.”

In later years, the story was increasingly embellished by subsequent writers, adding their own artistic flourishes to the legend. In the 1570s, Juan de Castellanos, vicar of Tunja, expounded upon Benalcázar’s encounter:

“Benalcázar interrogated a foreign, itinerant Indian resident in the city of Quito, who said he was a citizen of Bogotá and had come there by I know not what means. He stated that [Bogotá] was a land rich in emeralds and gold. Among the things that attracted them, he told of a certain king, unclothed, who went on rafts on a pool to make oblations, which he had observed, anointing all [his body] with resin and on top of it a quantity of ground gold, from the bottom of his feet to his forehead, gleaming like a ray of the sun. He also said that there was continual traffic there to make offerings of gold jewelry, fine emeralds, and other pieces of their ornaments ... The soldiers, delighted and content, then gave [that king] the name El Dorado; and they spread out [in search of him] by innumerable routes.'

Other references increasingly begin to associate this golden chief to a ritual at a lake. Friar Pedro Simón wrote in the 1600s that this ritual that took place at Lake Guatavita, near Bogotá. Jiménez de Quesada had also written of the Muisca offering gold thrown into these sacred lakes. In 1545, his brother, Hernán Pérez de Quesada, led a team that attempted to drain Lake Guatavita to recover the centuries worth of offerings. After cutting a notch into its rim and slightly lowering its level, they found some scattered offerings from around the muddy shoreline. Further largely unsuccessful attempts were made in 1562, 1580, 1823, and 1904.

Centuries later, two independent artifact discoveries provided further evidence for this ritual. The first of these was found in 1856, on the edge of a partially drained lagoon in Siecha. It was a golden raft, with a central chief and attendant figures, in the Muisca style, with triangular heads and bodies. Unfortunately, this object was later destroyed in a fire. However, in 1969, a similar raft was discovered in a cave in Pasca. These rafts both depict the offering ritual described by the early chroniclers, in what was likely a central part of the Muisca’s religious practices. This surviving artifact is now located in the Museo del Oro in Bogotá.

In the decades following the conquest of the Muisca, the legend continued to further diverge and evolve. As rumors of the New World’s gold spread throughout the European colonies, El Dorado took on a life of its own. Most later references described it not as a golden chief at a sacred lagoon, but as an undiscovered land full of riches. It became a propaganda tool for profiteers to fund their own expeditions and to attract armies of conquistadors.

The ongoing search for El Dorado motivated numerous campaigns throughout South America. In 1540, Gonzalo Pizarro, governor of Quito and brother of Francisco Pizarro, led an expedition into the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin in search of "El Dorado" and the “Land of Cinnamon.” During this campaign, an exploratory team led by lieutenant Francisco de Orellana traveled down the Napo River in search of food. Unable to fight the current, they became separated from Pizarro’s main convoy. They spent the next year robbing villages for food and fighting attacks as they floated through the heart of the Amazon, ultimately becoming the first Europeans to traverse the river out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Further expeditions probed into the Amazon Basin. In 1541-1546, the German, Philipp von Hutten, led a team from Venezuela south along the western edge of the Llanos. There they encountered the Omaguas, who also possessed notable amounts of gold. But while attempting to conquer them, Philipp and his captain were both severely wounded by spears that pierced under their armor and into their ribs. They were forced to retreat. Shortly thereafter he was killed by a rival conquistador, Juan de Carvajal.

The elusive hunt for El Dorado moved eastward. In 1569, a campaign to conquer the eastern Llanos was led by none other than Jiménez de Quesada, who was sixty-three by that time. Even he had become obsessed with the notion of another undiscovered El Dorado. They departed with roughly 500 mounted soldiers and 1500 natives. Over the next two and a half years, they faced famine and disease in sweltering swamplands. The expedition was a disaster, eventually reaching the Orinoco River with nothing gained. Only twenty-five Spaniards and four natives returned alive. Jiménez de Quesada died indebted at the age of seventy, after sacrificing most of his fortune chasing further riches.

Jiménez had no children, so he left his encomienda and titles to Antonio de Berrío, an experienced soldier who had married his niece. Berrío inherited Jiménez’s fervor for El Dorado. Between 1583 and 1595, he led four failed expeditions into the Colombian llanos, the Upper Orinoco, and Guiana Plateau. Rumors circulated of a city of wealthy Inca refuge hidden in the Guiana highlands, but no golden city was ever found. Like so many conquistadors before him, Antonio de Berrío’s quest brought only ruin. He too sacrificed the wealth of his encomiendas and the lives of hundreds of native farm workers, leaving only squalor to his heirs.

For historians, this era of the conquistadors was one of the most momentous of the Spanish Empire, a clash of civilizations. However, these European accounts are also highly skewed, often dehumanizing the experiences of the land’s original inhabitants. The scale of devastation on those communities is difficult to convey. After seventy destructive years pursuing New World gold, amid growing protest from Catholic clergy, the monarchy finally stopped sanctioning these bloody campaigns. But the region had already been irreversibly transformed, severing the native belief systems and way of life that had endured for millennia.