Than any other that either the north cools or the sun warms.
Silver from Peru, gold from Chile,
All end up here, along with fine cloves
from Terrenate and cinnamon from Tidoro.
Fabric from Cambray and ransom from Quinsay.
Coral from Sicily and nard from Syria,
Incense from Arabia, and garnets from Hormuz;
Diamonds from India and from gallant
Scita, rubies and fine emeralds,
Ivory from Goa, and black ebony from Siam.
The best from Spain, from the Philippines
Their finest, from Macón its most precious,
From both Javas, exotic luxuries;
Fine porcelain from timorous Sangley,
Rich furs from Scythians of the Caspian,
From the Troglodytes, sweet cinnamon;
Amber from Malabar, pearls from Idaspes,
Drugs from Egypt, perfumes from Pancaya,
Carpets from Persia, and jasper from Etolia;
Coloured silks from great China,
Bezoar stones from the artless Andes,
Prints from Rome, beautiful things from Milan;
Clocks that Flanders has invented,
As much cloth as Italy has, and as many lockets
As Venice has worked into exquisite treasures.
[…]
In brief, the best of the world, the finest
Of all that is made and known
Is plentiful here, available and inexpensive.
[…]
Mexico divides the globe in equal parts,
The earth bows down to it as if it were the sun,
And it seems to rule over the whole world.
[…]
Chapter 5: Gifts, opportunities for enjoyment
…
Oh rich city, town without equal,
More abundant in treasures and beauties
Than there are fish and sand in the deep sea.
Who can enumerate your riches,
Or count your famous markets,
Where there is more truth and honesty than swindling?
Of the assets of your rich fleets
That arrive and depart fully loaded,
Say if you are the sum of them.
In you are their splendours summarised,
You supply them with gold and fine silver,
And they send you their most precious things.
In you, Spain is united with China,
Italy with Japan, and finally
The entire world, in commerce and order.
In you we enjoy the best of the treasures
Of the West; in you the best of everything
That is created in the East.
IB10 Juan Rodríguez Freile (1566–c.1640) On the legend of El Dorado
Juan Rodríguez Freile (or Freyle) was born in South America of Spanish parents (thus a ‘creole’, in Spanish race terminology). As a young man he travelled to Spain but returned to the New World in the late sixteenth century. He thereafter lived and worked on his estate and in old age turned to writing an account of his country’s development. In the early part of the work he discusses pre‐conquest native customs. One of his sources for this was a friend, named in the book as ‘Don Juan’, who was himself the nephew of the last native ruler of the area before the coming of the Spanish. The story of a golden king had been mentioned earlier by both the Spanish historian Fernández de Oviedo and Sir Walter Raleigh, but Freile gives the fullest account of the ritual of the Muisca people at Lake Guatavita (in present‐day Colombia). Freile’s manuscript, written c.1636, is lost, but it was copied in the eighteenth century and printed in the nineteenth. Our extract is taken from Juan Rodríguez Freile, The Conquest of New Granada, translated into English by William C. Atkinson, London: The Folio Society, 1961, pp. 35–6.
Don Juan recounted to me how, when the Spaniards came by way of Vélez to discover and conquer the kingdom, he was fasting in preparation for the succession; for with this people the inheritance passed, as it still passes today, to a sister’s son. He had already had knowledge of women at the time he began his fast. The way of the fasting, and of the other ceremonies, was as follows.
Tradition required that, when a nephew was to succeed his uncle, he should observe a six‐year abstinence. This he did in a cave set aside for the purpose, and during this time he was to have no commerce with women nor eat flesh, salt or chili. Nor might he ever see the sun. Only at night could he leave his cave and behold the light of the moon and stars, withdrawing again before the sun’s rays should fall on him. Once all this had been performed he was invested as prince, and the first obligation then laid on him was to go to the great lake of Guatavita and make offerings and sacrifices to the devil, his god and master.
In this too there was due ceremonial. On the lake lay a huge raft made of reeds, furnished and adorned as attractively as might be. Here were placed four lighted braziers in which burned quantities of resin, their form of incense, and turpentine, with other divers perfumes. All round the lake meantime – this being a considerable expanse of water, deep enough to take sea‐going vessels – there had assembled countless natives of both sexes decked out with feathers, strips of metal, gold chaplets, with a great number of fires laid all about. As soon as the burning of incense began on the raft they set light to these, till the smoke blotted out the light of day.
At this point the heir was stripped to the skin, anointed with clay and powdered with gold‐dust, until he shone gilt all over. They then took him aboard the raft, and at his feet placed a great heap of gold and emeralds that he might make offering to his god. Four of the leading caciques also adorned with plumage, gold headbands, armlets, metal strips and great gold ear‐rings then joined him. They too went naked, each bearing his
