Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

The El Dorado Legend Columbus brought home the magic of the word ·gold' from his westward Journey across the Atlantic In t 492. From then on the search tor gold was the motivating force behind exploration and colonlzat1on of the New World. The lust for gold brought about t11e downfall of the Mexican Azfecs and Peruvian Incas. During the Spanish conquest In the early t 6th century Hernan Cortlls In Mexico and Francisco Pizarro In Peru, plund red, pIllag d and murdered, •o send enormous quantities of treasur back to Europe. The Conquistadors were goaded on ,n their qu st by a folk lore of gold. The most ,maginative of th se tales was about a 'golden man' - El Dor ado - a k,n cover d rn gold who lived in a city of gold far away in the mountainous interior ot South America. The Conquistadors and their Indian bearers endured unbelievable hardships In t11e1r quest for El Dorado. They braved jungles inhabited by snakes and jaguars and Infested with foreign diseases. Andean sleet. host,te Indian tribes with poisoned arrows. scarcity of food. dying men and animals did not deter them. Poporo (/Jme container) 1n Ifie form of a woman. from Ille Owmbaya region. western Colombia. Cast gold. I t 4 cm high. The pre-1-1,sµan,c lnd,ans carried lime in suc/J contamers. for use with coca leaves wl11c 11 were c/Jewed to produce a narco/lc effect. Poporos are still 111 common use among part oft/le Indian population of Colombia. the modern form being made from gourds. The use of certain drugs played an important part m rrad1flonat Indian cultures In Central and South America. In re,ilrty there were no great cit, s ot treasure to be found alter the destruction ot the Aztec and Inc towns But ther was a Golden Man' High ,n the Andean ranges aoout 70 kItometr s trom Bogota, ,s Lake Guatavita, ancient s,te of the sacred cer morn s of one of !rte Chtbcha Indian tr,lles - the MuIsca On ceremonial occ s,ons the MuIsca Chlet was cover d ,n resin, gold dust was blown all over his naked bony through small pipes, forming an oily skin of gold H was th n rowed on a balsa raft to the centr of the small crater lak of Guatav,ta Wh1I the tnbesp oµle mad sacr d offerings or gold figurines and emeralds which they threw ,nto the water horn the lake's edge, the ch,efta111 mad h,s own off rings from the raft at tile centre Afterwards he 11nmersed himself in the cold depths and washed the golden skin from t11s body. Tales of th,s gl11ter1ng ritual spr ad among Indian tribes through lrade from the highlands to the coastal lowlands Eventually ,t came to !11 eager ars of the Conqu,swdors and lured many expeditions ,nto perII in search of this 'El Dorado' Gonzalo J,n1(mez de Quesada, Spanish Conquistador w/10 founded Bogota 111 1538. Oil portrait in National Museum, Bogota. Lake Guatavita. 70 kilometres from Bogota. T/1e legend of El Dorado. Ille 'Golden Man ·, 011g111ated here. Cast gold raft from Mwsca r g1on. 7h1s small raft found a f w yeaIs ago at Pasca. 11 ar Bogotll, 1s thought to dep,ct tile El Dorado ceremony