ho had
penetrated from the coast of Venezuela to Bogota on this his second
expedition,--a frightful journey. At the same time, and without the
knowledge of either, Sebastian de Belalcazar had marched up from Quito
in search of the Gilded Man. The story of that gold-covered chief had
penetrated the heart of Ecuador, and the Indian statements induced
Belalcazar to march to the spot. An arrangement was made between the
three leaders by which Quesada was left sole master of the country he
had conquered, and Federmann and Belalcazar returned to their respective
places.

While Federmann was chasing the myth thus, a successor to him had
already arrived at Coro. This was the intrepid German known as "George
of Speyer," whose real name, Bandelier has discovered, was George
Hormuth. Reaching Coro in 1535, he heard not only of the Dorado, but
even of tame sheep to the southwest,--that is, in the direction of Peru.
Following these vague indications, he started southwest, but encountered
such enormous difficulties in trying to reach the mountain pass, which
the Indians told him led to the land of the Dorado, that he drifted into
the vast and fearful tropical forests of the upper Orinoco. Here he
heard of Meta, and, following that myth, penetrated to within one degree
of the equator. For twenty-seven months he and his Spanish followers
floundered in the tangled and swampy wastes between the Orinoco and the
Amazon. They met some very numerous and warlike tribes, most conspicuous
of which were the Uaupes.[17] They found no gold, but everywhere heard
the fable of a great lake associated with gold. Of the one hundred and
ninety men who started on this expedition only one hundred and thirty
came back, and but fifty of these had strength left to bear arms. The
whole of the indescribably awful trip lasted three years. The result of
its horrors was to deflect the attention of explorers from the real home
of the Dorado, and to lead them on a wild-goose chase after a related
but rather geographic myth to the forests of the Amazon. In other words,
it prepared for the exploration of northern Brazil.

Shortly after George of Speyer, and entirely unconnected with him,
Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, had given an impulse to the
exploration of the Amazon from the Pacific side of the continent. In
1538, distrusting Belalcazar, he sent his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, to
Quito to supersede his suspected lieutenant. The following year Gonzalo