The myth of the Seven Cities and El Dorado

Edgar Vigário

2014

Abstract

The myth of El Dorado seems to have its root on an older one, the myth of the Seven Cities. In this paper some of the documentary and cartographic references from both are revised.

Figure I - Johannes Ruysch world map from Ptolemy [Vitalibus 1508]

1. Introduction

The myth of El Dorado stays in the imaginary of the occidental civilization from the middle of sixteenth century until the 1925’s disappearance of Colonel Fawcett in the Amazonian jungle. Due to architectural similarities of the imagined city it seems derived by another myth, the Seven Cities myth, this one from the first stages of the Atlantic’s exploration.

In the following text are revisited some of the documentary and cartographic data from the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that kept the myth of the Seven Cities, as the rumors that originate El Dorado.

2. The Island of the Seven Cities

In the year 1447 a Portuguese ship that have sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules1 was caught in a storm and forced to head west landed in an Island

                                                            1 How the promontories that flanked the Strait of Gibraltar are called in antiquity.

with seven cities. The People in the island speak Portuguese and asked them if the Moors still occupy Spain from where they fled after the defeat and death of the king Rodrigo [Columbus 1867][Hornius 1652].

These persons don’t want any external contact and tried to retain the sailors, however, they manage to escape and return to Portugal. They arrived believing that D. Henrique would praise them but instead the prince gave them a severe reprehension and ordered that they return to the island for taking good information of what they saw. Frightened they left and never returned to Portugal, however, during their stay they told among other stories that the sand on the beach’s island where their boat was cleaned had two parts of gold and a sample brought from there was taken by D. Pedro2 and kept in the Justice house [Galvão 1862].

Admittedly, the island of the Seven Cities, in some Portuguese maps inscribed as Antilia, although its position does not coincide with that given by Aristotle because in none of the maps is represented more than 200 leagues away from Canarias and Azores, was populated on 714, after Hispania was conquered by the moors. On that time, seven Portuguese bishops followed by their believers sailed to the island where they build seven cities and burned the ships to eliminate the returning possibility [Columbus 1867].

Forty years before Columbus’ discover and some years after Diogo de Teive depart Portugal searching for this island, Teives’ pilot, Pedro de Velasco a native from Palos in Andalusia, told to Columbus in the monastery of Santa Maria da Arrábida that they’ve departed from Faial and sailed 150 leagues with northeast wind and on the way back discovered Flores guided by the numerous land birds they saw flying to the island [Columbus 1867][Casas 1927]. From there they sailed so much to northwest until having the Cape Claro from Ireland to east. Here they found strong winds and soft winds from west, which made them believe that was land in the west. Because it was already August and dreading the Winter decided to finish the exploration and return [Columbus 1867][Casas 1927].

                                                            

                                                           

2 At that time he was the kingdom’s regent.

Some pretend, pointing out many reasons that those lands and islands where the Portuguese debarked are what we now call Antilles and New Spain3. But as we know, people have the habit of identify any unknown land as the New Spain [Galvão 1862].

3. Representations in cartography

The foregoing paragraphs reflect how the chroniclers and historians from the late 15th and early 16th century described the mythical cities of gold in the Seven Cities Island or Antilia. Besides these reports, in the first half of the 15th century began to emerge cartographic records of the island that were initially located in the eastern Atlantic but which progressively moved to the American continent.

In the first known reference, on Beccario’s map of 1426, Antilia appears represented as the largest and most southerly of an archipelago with four islands. There it has four bays on the western sector and three in the eastern all extremely regular, in fact seeming artificial. These bays are denominated in 1482’s Benincasa map as Aira, Ansalli, Ansodi, Con, Anhuib, Ansesseli and Ansolli. Ten years later, in Martin Behaim’s globe the island is already isolated and having the following note [Ravenstein 1908]: "On the year 714 After Christ, the Island of the Seven Cities, above displayed, was populated by a archbishop of Porto in Portugal, with other six bishops and Christians, men and women, that had run away from Spain4 on boats, and came with their animals and possessions. It was by chance that in 1414 a Castilian ship comes near the island."

In the 1508’s Ruysch map the island now occupies the latitudes 37º to 40º north but is also referred the dragged ship, its rediscover by the Spanish and that was a refuge from king Roderico in the eighth century. From the early 16th century the coast map of Egerton 2803 contains the designation "Septem Ciuitates" but instead of referring an island points

 3 A Spanish viceroyalty, with the capital on Mexico City, that exists between 1535 and 1821. Its territory stretches from some of the southern states of United States to Costa Rica. 4 At the time this reference often meant the Iberian Peninsula as an all.

to a location in the South America where nowadays is Venezuela5.

4. Fernão Dulmo

This Flemish emigrant, one of the first colons in the Terceira Island on Azores, appears associate to an exploration’s project of the Seven Cities Island or other lands that can exist on the Atlantic Occidental. Predisposed to bear the costs of the expedition he asked permission to the Portuguese king D. João II. The king was pleased with that design and in March 3, 1486, issued letters of privilege granting Dulmo the civil and criminal jurisdiction of any islands or continents discovered by him or anyone that works under his orders with the inheritance of the resulting incomes.

Three months after the authorization Dulmo decided to join on a partnership with João Afonso do Estreito, at the time resident in Funchal, and requested the king, to recognize his partner in the design and division of any resulting income. The royal warrant is given in the letters of July 24 and August 4, 1486 establishing precise conditions for the partnership:

Estreito would have to arming and provisioning two caravels for six months, becoming captain of one of them and Dulmo of the other;

Dulmo would have to recruit pilots and sailors for the two ships and support their salary;

The fleet would also have to be ready to sail on March 1, 1487.

There is no documentary evidence that the journey took place, and the only reference, is the alleged statement of a sailor to Columbus, where he said he found west of Ireland the land that Hernan Dolinos had previously sought [Casas 1927].

5. Cabeza de Vaca

In 1536, arrive to Mexico City the four survivors of an expedition that some years before the newly

                                                                                                                       5 There are late representations in the Atlantic, as in

1546’s Descelier map where is placed in the Bermudas’ area and in the maps of Ortelius and Mercator, from 1570 and 1587, placed at the south east of Bermudas halfway between Cuba and Azores.

elected governor of Florida, Panfilo de Narvaez, had organized to the territory. They were the remaining of an initial group of 600 men and between them were Cabeza de Vaca6 and Estebanico an African slave later instrumental in maintenance the myth. They had spent eight years among the Gulf of Mexico’s natives survived thanks to being taken as healers after Cabeza de Vaca successfully extracted an arrow lodged near the heart of a man [Vaca 2005].

In 1539, a few years after their arrival, a Franciscan priest, Marcos de Niza together with Estebanico, seeps up through California to New Mexico with the hope of finding the country of Cibola, where the Indians have reported to survivors the existence of the seven legendary cities. The expedition reaches regions hitherto unexplored, Estebanico disappears and Niza narrates on his return that he had seen in the distance seven brilliant cities and taken possession of them in the king of Spain’s behalf.

His enthusiastic narrative, originates from the viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, the delivery in 1540 of a considerable expedition composed of 340 Spaniards and a few hundred Indians. This expedition was divided into three fronts, two terrestrial and one by sea, was led by Vasquez de Coronado and have Niza as guide. After having suffered many attacks and explored the region of the Zuni7, where Niza said the seven cities were located, they reassembled near the actual city of Santa Fe for spending the winter.

Coronado is then attracted by the story of an Indian which they called the Turkish and departs with a handful of men in search of Quivira a rich country in northeast. They have crossed the New Mexico, Texas and virtually all Kansas, repeating the disappointment when they reached the foot of an arid cliff upon which stood not a rich city but a poor Indian village in which the inhabitants not even had gold jewelry. Coronado who had previously executed the Turkish decides to return and the discredited Niza end his days in Mexico City.

 

6 That wrote an account of the expedition [Vaca 2005]. 7 Actually with a total population of 9000 the Zuni are an indigenous people from the New México famous by their jewelry on silver and turquoises.

6. El Dorado

The conquest of the Inca Empire by a little group of soldiers commanded by Francisco Pizarro8 brought huge revenues to the conquerors, having been paid at the time by the Inca emperor a ransom that in 2012 amounts to a value exceeding 246 million Euros [Tordesillas 1615]. To one of them, Sebastian de Benalcázar, is described a sacred ceremony held by the Muisca Indians9 at Lake Guatavita in which the heir of a chief after being sprayed with gold was bathed in the waters of a lake while jewels in gold and precious stones were tossed to appease the gods and fertilize the land10.

Benalcázar upon hearing the story deduced that if a local chief had so much gold that could toss it on the water then certainly it doesn’t lack in the country. He decides to conquer but at the same time the governor of Santa Marta, Pedro Fernández de Lugo, in order to discover a new way to Peru sent Gonçalo Jiménez de Quesada in an exploration’s voyage through the south.

Gonçalo left in April 1536 with an army of 800 Spaniards and several hundred Indians but have

                                                            

                                                           

8 That started with the detention of the Inca Atahualpa at November, 16 1532 in Cajamarca. 9 A States Confederation of the central highlands of present day Colombia’s Eastern Range. In 1536, the Zipa Tisquesusa has its biggest authority, governing all the region of Bogotá. 10 This ceremony is narrated on a 1636 manuscript in the following way [Fresle 1859]: "On that lagoon of Guatavita they used to made a big raft of rushes, the most attractive they could ... On this time all the lagoon has crowded with Indians and on for the entire circumference, Indians and Indian all crowned with gold, feathers and nose rings ... They stripped the heir ... and smeared with a sticky league, and sprinkled all with gold dust, so that was all covered with that metal. They put him on the raft ... and put near his feet a great heap of gold and emeralds to offer to their god. They came with him in the boat, four chiefs, the most important, adorned with frangipani, crowns, bracelets, nose rings and gold earrings, also naked ... The gold Indian do his offer, throwing all the gold and emeralds he wore to the feet, in the middle of the lagoon, pursued by the other chiefs who accompanied him. After the ceremony banners flapped ... and departing the raft to land the screams began ... and dance on their way ... With the ceremony was recognized as the newly elected lord and prince ..."

reached the Andean highlands with only 200 men due to the diseases, attacks of wild beasts and unfriendly Indians. At first the Muisca welcomed them and offered women, clothes, food and small gold jewelry, but the situation quickly reversed when they realized that the intention of the Spaniards was to conquer and snap up all his gold.

Anyhow, the country was mastered in a short time and in August 1538 founded the city of Santa Fe. A few weeks later Benalcázar arrives from the south and the German adventurer Nicolas de Federman11 from northwest. While discussing who would be the governor, they plundered the country and several times tried to drain the lake Guatavita however without the expected financial success having only found modest amounts of gold.

7. Orellana

In February 1541, Gonzalo Pizarro embarks in a journey of exploration searching the Cinnamon’s country. He leaves Quito with a force of 220 Spaniards and 4000 Indians, while Orellana, the second in command, goes to Guayaquil to enlisting troops and get horses. Gonçalo leaves Quito without waiting for Orellana but the former doesn’t abandon the expedition and in March with 23 men and the horses rejoins Pizarro in the valley of Zumarco [Carvajal 1942].

They cross the Andes, and for one year search the mythical country until they reach the Napo River, having on the way lost about two thirds of Spaniards and three quarters of Indians. There Pizarro loses patience, burn and makes the dogs devour the Indian guides and send Orellana with 57 men on a river trip to look for food. Despite the chances Orellana find an Indian village willing to help them but their ship is in such bad shape that they are unable to return.

He starts to build a brigantine and sends several men upriver to prevent Pizarro [Carvajal 1942], however the men return with news of Pizarro’s departure to Quito and he decides to pursue the exploration. Runs through the tangle of Amazonian tributaries up the Orinoco until the

 11 At the time working for the bankers Wesler, creditors of the Spanish king.

Cachequerique River and from it to the Black River12 where he returns to the Amazon River.

The account of the journey is lavish in fantastic events like the contact with emissaries of a king whose wealth exceeded the hitherto seen and many warlike encounters with the Icamiabas, white women who carried only a bow and arrows13. But what strikes more is the amount and the size of the settlements found14, implying that a civilization existed in the region with a social organization that looked the same throughout the visited area, being this territory divided into well-defined landlords [Carvajal 1942].

The impression left by the report, is highlighted and contradicted, about 20 years later by the rebel Lope de Aguirre who in 1560, as one of the small captains of an expedition led by Pedro de Ursua composed by 370 Spaniards and 500 slaves, Indians and Africans15. Aguirre, taking advantage of the discontent generated by direct contact with the Amazonian reality in comparison to what had been described by Carvajal, gradually take the power and become the leader of the group that in 1561 put Venezuela on fire, describes in a letter sent to the Spanish king the Amazonian region and his rebellion in deceptive terms16.

                                                            

                                                                                            

12 Named by him. 13 The description of these women who lived on stone houses and their elites eat on gold and silver [Carvajal 1942] are so similar with the mythological Amazons that the river bear his name. 14 "... we take so long to get out of town of this great lord Machiparo, to all apparently lasted more than eighty leagues, ... these all populated, that there was no distance from village to village bigger than a shot of crossbow, and that would not be further half a league. And there were a village who took five leagues without re-launching home from home; it was wonderful thing to see... " [Carvajal 1942] 15 This expedition intended precisely to rediscover the territory visited by Orellana. 16 "... On the year 1559, the marquis of Canete, entrusted an expedition on the river of the Amazons to Pedro de Ursua, a Navarro, better, French. He delayed the boats construction until the year of 1560, on Motilones province, in Peru. The Indians are called Motilones because they have their head shaved. These boats were made on the wet country, and when they are casted into the water, most of them fall in pieces. We made ferries, left the horses and supplies, and with grand cost of our person we went down the river. Next, we found

 the most powerful rivers in Peru, which seems to us a sea of freshwater. In this way we travelled 300 miles from the starting point. This bad gubernator was so perverse, cruel and miserable that we can’t stand him and put ourselves in his bad ways. Since I have interest on the matter, excellent king and lord, I only say that we kill him; certainly a very serious action. We elected a young knight from Sevilha named Don Fernando de Guzmán to be our king, and made him oath as such, like your royalty can see on the signatures of all that were present and that stay on Margarita Island, on these Índias. They raise me to field commander, and because I don’t consented to their insults and bad actions they decide to kill me, so I kill the new king, his guard captain, his lieutenant general, his butler, his chaplain, a woman of this league, a knight from Rodes, an admiral, two standard bearers and other six of their allies. It was my intention to take this war and died in the same if necessary to finish the cruelties that your minister in us practices. Again I named captains and one sergeant-major who try to kill me and for that I hang them all. All these murders, and bad happenings, occurred on the Maranon River. We take 10 months and half to arrive to its mouth. We travelled a good hundred days traversing 1500 leagues. Is a big and redoubtable river with 80 leagues of freshwater on its mouth. It is very deep, and over 800 leagues its shores are deserted, with no cities, as your Majesty will see by the true report that we did. In our percurse we see more than 6000 islands. Only god knows how we escape from so terrible lake! I warn you, king and lord, don’t try or gives permission to a fleet to be sent to this unchancy river, because on Christian faith, I swear, king and lord, if hundred thousand men come no one survives, because the histories are fake and on this river there are nothing more than despair, specially to the new arrived from Spain. The captains that stay with me and that promise to died on this demand as honored man are: Juan Jeronimo de Espinola Ginoves, admiral; Juan Gomez, Cristobal Garcia, infantry captain, both from Andalusia; mounted captain Diego Tirado, Andalusian, from which your judges, king and lord, with grand infamy take Indians that he had earned with his spear; the captain of my guard Roberto de Sosaya and his standard-bearer Nuño Hernandez, Valencian; Juan Lopez de Ayala, de Cuenca, our payer; general Blas Gutierrez, 27 years conqueror; Juan Ponce, standard-bearer, native from Sevilha; Custódio Hernandez, standard-bearer, Portuguese; Diego de Torres, standard-bearer, Navarro; sergeant Pedro Gutierrez Viso e Diego de Figueroa; Cristobal de Rivas, conqueror, Pedro de Rojas, Andalusian; Juan de Saucedo, mounted standard-bearer; Bartolome Sanchez Paniagua, our lawyer; Diego Sanchez Bilbao, provider; Garcia Navarro, general inspector, and

8. Manuscript 512

Between 1906 and 1924 the Colonel Percy Fawcett made seven expeditions in South America mostly to map the jungle’s area of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru at the behest of the Royal Geographic Society that had been commissioned as a third party unbiased of national interests. During that time, based on documentary research and parapsychology believes he formulated a theory concerning a lost civilization that eventually had inhabit the Brazilian jungle in the region of Mato Grosso [Fawcett 1954].

His greater theory's support was the report attributed to the bandeirante17 João da Silva Guimarães that narrate the 1753's discovery of an abandoned city. This document known as Manuscript 512 [M512 1753] describes the lost city in detail however without providing a specific location and in general terms it goes in the following way [M512 1753].

The group attention was attracted by the sight of a large bright mountain which indicates the presence of crystals. It was impossible to climb it but a Negro when was chasing a dear found a path paved with stones.

At the end of the path and on the mountain’s top there was a great city whose access was only possible by the referred path. The city have mixed characteristics, some similar to those of ancient civilizations and others unidentifiable, and its entrance was adorned with three arches having the middle one in their upper part inscriptions in an unidentifiable language although located so high that was impossible to be correctly copied.

                                                                                             many other noblemen of this league. We pray God Our Lord that your fortune is never raised against Turkish and French and all others who wish to make war with you in these parts. On these, God wills that we can obtain by our arms the reward that we are entitled, but that you withheld. Son of your Basque vassals, and I, rebel against you, until the death, for your ingratitude. Lope de Aguirre, the Wanderer." [Moreno 1961] 17 The bandeirantes were a mixture of ethnics with most of their captains belonging to the first and second generation descendants of the Portuguese that settled in São Paulo. From 1580 to 1670 they mainly focused on slave hunting but from 1670 to 1750 they start to be interested in mineral wealth.

This entrance was followed by a main street lined with houses without windows and the interiors completely empty. The street ended in a central plaza which had in its middle a statue of a man pointing the North Pole on the top of a huge black stone. Each square's corner had obelisks similar to the Romans but many of them were damaged seeming that they’ve be knocked by thunderbolts.

The plaza also had in its right side a splendid building that seems to be a palace which has above its door a figure of a half-naked young man crowned with laurel. In the opposite side were another ruined building which appeared to have been a temple with inlaid engravings of figures and pictures of finer workmanship on its walls.

About a cannon shot from the stone village, was a building with a front 250 paces long with several rooms, each one with its own waterspout. Inside one of the houses, a man named João Antonio found a big gold coin which had on its face, a boy on his knees and the combined images of a crown and an arrow on its verse.

In front of the plaza was a broad river with spacious banks whereby a run of three days ended in a waterfall where the river spread out like an ocean. To the east there was an area where they found silver bars which had many deep cuttings and excavations with their depths never discovered because none of the ropes they had could reach the bottom.

These caverns appeared to be ancient mine shafts, or possible tombs due to the various inscriptions on them. From there the expedition follows its course and when it met the rivers Paraguaçu and Una the manuscript was elaborated as a letter and sent to the authorities in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1925, Fawcett with his elder son Jack and a friend named Raleigh Rimmell, return to Brazil for exploring an area that he had previously visited and where he thought were the best chances to find the city. On April 20 the group departed from Cuiabá and on May 29 Fawcett wrote a letter preventing his wife that he was ready to go into unexplored territory.

They were reported to be crossing the Upper Xingu, a southeastern tributary of the Amazon River and on a final letter, written from Dead

Horse Camp18, he gave their location and expressed his optimism regarding the result of the expedition as his concern about the health and endurance of Jack's friend. After that weren't any news and many presume that the local Indians, the Kalapalos, who last saw them or the tribes whose territory they were entering and described by the Kalapalos as hostiles had killed them but never have been found a proof that corroborates their homicide.

On 2003 Michael Heckenberger with the Kuikuro people publish an article on Science [Heckenberger 2014] relating the uncovering of 28 towns, villages and hamlets that may have supported as many as 50000 people within 20000 square kilometers of forest. The larger towns had defensive ditches 3 meters deep and 10 meters wide backed by wooden palisades and large plazas some reaching 150 meters wide [Biello 2008].

The remains found show that cities were occupied for around 1000 years and abandoned as recently as 400 years ago. During its occupation the inhabitants carved roads through the jungle linking settlements separated as far as five kilometers apart. The major roads which departed from the villages’ plazas were aligned along the summer solstice axis in a northeast to southwest fashion having some of them bridges and canoe canals running alongside [Heckenberger 2014].

One of the biggest settlements was the archaeological site of Kuhikugu or settlement X11 located at 12º 33' south 53º 6' west, giving the possibility that legends regarding this site may have convinced the explorer that was the location of his lost City of Z, and in this case, the Fawcett's dream was off from reality. In fact, Fawcett didn’t believe that the Indians had created the city but instead a western lost civilization before intermarrying them reporting frequently on his observations the white skinned Indians that he saw on his journeys through the jungle [Fawcett 1954].

                                                            18 One question remaining about Dead Horse Camp concerns a discrepancy in the coordinates Fawcett gave for the camp. In the letter to his wife, he wrote that they were at Dead Horse Camp, coordinates 11º 43' south 54º 35' west, the spot where his horse died in 1920. However, in report to the North American Newspapers Alliance he gave the coordinates as 13º 43' south 54º 35' west.

References

[Biello 2008] David Biello; Ancient Amazon Actually Highly Urbanized; Scientific America; August 2008; http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lost-amazon-cities.

[Carvajal 1942] Gaspar Carvajal, Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana, Quito, 1942.

[Casas 1927] Bartolomé de las Casas, Historia de las Índias - Libro I, 1927.

[Columbus 1867] Ferdinand Columbus, Historie della vita e dei fatti di Cristoforo Colombo, 1867.

[Fawcett 1954] Percy H. Fawcett; A Exploração Fawcett; Empresa Nacional de Publicidade; Lisboa; 1954.

[Fresle 1859] Juan Rodriguez Fresle, Conquista i descobrimento del nuevo reino de Granada de las Indias Occidentales del mar Océano i fundación de la ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogota, Bogota, 1859.

[Galvão 1862] António Galvão; The Discoveries of the World by António Galvano; Hakluyt Society; 1862.

[Heckenberger 2014] Michael J. Heckenberger, Afukaka Kuikuro, Urissap Tabata Kuikuro, Christian Russell, Morgan Schmidt, Carlos Fausto, Bruna Franchetto; Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?; http://plaza.ufl.edu/duin/Xtra/AMAZONIA%201492.%20HECKENBERGER.htm.

[Hornius 1652] Georgius Hornius; De originibus Americanis libri quatuor; 1652.

[M512 1753] Relação histórica de uma oculta e grande povoação antiquíssima sem moradores, que se descobriu no ano de 1753 (manuscript); http://objdigital.bn.br/acervo_digital/div_manuscritos/cmc_ms495/mss_01_4_001.pdf.

[Moreno 1961] Arellano Moreno (org); Documentos para la Historia economica de Venezuela, Caracas: Universidad Central, 1961.

[Ravenstein 1908] Ernst G. Ravenstein; Martin Behain: His Life and His Globe, London, 1908.

[Tordesillas 1615] Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano, Madrid, 1615.

[Vaca 2005] Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios y Comentarios, Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, 2005.

[Vitalibus 1508] Geographia; Rome; Bernardinus Venetus de Vitalibus; 1508.