Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Was This Because The Table-Land Of New Granada Is Not On The
North, But On The North-East Of Quito?
We may venture to say that the
tradition of a naked man covered with powdered gold must have belonged
Originally to a hot region, and not to the cold table-lands of
Cundirumarca, where I often saw the thermometer sink below four or
five degrees; however, on account of the extraordinary configuration
of the country, the climate differs greatly at Guatavita, Tunja,
Iraca, and on the banks of the Sogamozo. Sometimes, also, religious
ceremonies are preserved which took rise in another zone; and the
Muyscas, according to ancient traditions, made Bochica, their first
legislator and the founder of their worship, arrive from the plains
situate to the east of the Cordilleras. I shall not decide whether
these traditions expressed an historical fact, or merely indicated, as
we have already observed in another place, that the first Lama, who
was the offspring and symbol of the sun, must necessarily have come
from the countries of the East. Be it as it may, it is not less
certain that the celebrity which the expeditions of Ordaz, Herrera,
and Speier had already given to the Orinoco, the Meta, and the
province of Papamene, situate between the sources of the Guaviare and
Caqueta, contributed to fix the fable of El Dorado near to the eastern
back of the Cordilleras.
The junction of three bodies of troops on the table-land of New
Granada spread through all that part of America occupied by the
Spaniards the news of an immensely rich and populous country which
remained to be conquered.
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