he Californian gold-fields has
been found.

This main lode had been lost sight of north of El Dorado County, but its
reappearance in Trinity has caused a great deal of excitement and turned
many gold-seekers thither, in preference to the frozen Klondike region.
The first discovery of gold in California was made in what is now El
Dorado County, and it was in consequence of the gold find that the
county got its name.

El Dorado was the name of a mythical king, about whom the most
astonishing stories were told. He was supposed to be lord of a country
where gold was as plentiful as dust. It was in search of these golden
lands that many of the famous discoverers undertook their voyages.

The conquest and settlement of New Granada (now the Republic of
Colombia), the discovery of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, of the great
forests of the Andes, and of the mountainous regions of Venezuela, were
all due to the quest for El Dorado.

This king, according to the tradition, dwelt in a city called Manoa,
built on a lake called Parima. This city was supposed to be somewhere in
the northern part of South America, and it was confidently asserted that
its streets were paved with gold.

As the story has it, the wealth of this country was so great that the
people wore gold for clothes, it being their custom to smear their
bodies with oil of balsam, and then sprinkle themselves with gold-dust,
till they looked like gilded statues.

To the people of the Old World it seemed that a country which could
afford to dress its inhabitants in this fashion must be well worth
finding, and so the old navigators were always trying to find it.

Of course they never did, but the source of the legend of El Dorado has
been traced to the yearly ceremony of an Indian tribe near Bogota, in
the Republic of Colombia.

The Spaniards declared that it was part of the religious duty of this
tribe to have their chief bathed once a year in a certain lake which was
sacred to them.

Great preparations were made for this ceremony. The body of the chief
was first smeared with gold-dust and oil of balsam, and, a handful of
gold and precious stones was given to him. He then advanced to the
shores of the lake, and amid the prayers and chants of his tribe, first
cast the gold and jewels into the water, and then plunged in himself.

This ceremony was supposed to bring his people good luck for the coming
year.

The Spaniards who conquered New Granada, or the Republ