0:00

You're listening to an Airwave Media

0:03

Podcast.

0:29

On the Friendly Atheist Podcast, we

0:31

know religious extremism infects every

0:33

major pillar of society. Politics.

0:36

You can't just say we're the forward party of religion.

0:38

Where do you think the bigotry's coming from? Women's

0:40

rights. They claim to be pro-life. This guy

0:42

never talks about the life of the women. LGBTQ

0:44

equality. Go to a drag queen story. You don't

0:46

need Kirk Hamrick. American history. That

0:49

is not what God wants us to do, says the guy

0:51

who posed in front of a Confederate flag when he was running

0:53

for office. Science education. Yeah,

0:56

we'll hide the evolution section. At the same time, our society seems

0:58

to be getting less religious.

1:03

How does that make any sense? I'm Hemant

1:05

Mehta. And I'm Jessica Blimpke-Grief. Every

1:07

week on the Friendly Atheist Podcast, we

1:09

dig into the latest news stories involving

1:11

faith and culture to give you context

1:14

and help you make sense of them.

1:15

And give you permission to be angry about it. Whether

1:17

you're a proud heretic or someone with religious

1:19

doubts. Or believers curious about

1:21

what the other side has to say. We're

1:24

here for all of you. The Friendly Atheist Podcast.

1:26

Find us wherever you get your favorite shows.

1:38

If I were to say the phrase, Gold

1:41

Rush, one undoubtedly will

1:43

think of the doctrine of manifest destiny

1:45

and westward expansion. And

1:48

of course, the California Gold Rush,

1:50

a 19th century migration boom animated

1:53

by gold fever.

1:55

In fact, there were numerous

1:57

gold rushes in the 19th century. in

2:01

numerous regions of North America,

2:03

but few upon hearing someone talk

2:06

of an American gold rush would

2:08

think of the 16th century

2:11

age of exploration and European

2:13

colonialism,

2:15

even though really this was

2:17

the first gold rush in

2:19

the Americas. From the

2:21

beginning European exploration

2:23

of the Americas was animated

2:26

by a lust for riches and

2:28

a search for wealthy civilizations

2:31

that could be sacked and pillaged

2:33

for their gold, their silver, and

2:35

their pearls.

2:37

Christopher Columbus, who sought a sea

2:39

passage to the east as an alternative

2:42

to Marco Polo's overland route,

2:44

dreamed of finding fabulous

2:47

cities rich in minerals and precious

2:50

stones. In particular he

2:52

hoped to find the island that

2:54

Marco Polo had called Chipangu,

2:58

which legend said was quote

3:00

covered in gold end

3:02

quote. In reality, Chipangu

3:06

was only the Chinese word for Japan,

3:09

which was not exactly a mythical

3:11

city of gold and which Columbus

3:13

would never reach.

3:15

Landing in the Caribbean, Columbus focused

3:17

on the riches of the inhabitants

3:20

they encountered on each island,

3:22

always asking about the source

3:24

of the gold he observed native peoples

3:27

wearing as ornaments.

3:29

When his ship the Santa Maria ran aground

3:32

at the island he would name Hispaniola

3:34

and the natives greeted them with offers

3:37

to trade gold items for brass

3:39

bells,

3:40

Columbus believed he had found

3:42

it. He returned to Europe

3:44

with exaggerated tales of the

3:46

gold mines of Santo Domingo and

3:49

he returned there in 1493

3:52

forcing the native Taino people

3:54

to gather gold for him. Within 30

3:57

years because of this forced

3:59

labor, labor, as well as the diseases spread

4:02

by the Europeans, almost the

4:04

entirety of the Taino population

4:07

had died.

4:08

Recently I had a listener of Taino

4:11

descent message me about my

4:13

episode on Columbus and point

4:15

out that the Taino did not die

4:18

out and indeed there are descendant

4:20

communities today.

4:22

So on that listener's request, I

4:24

want to make that correction. But

4:26

the fact of the survival of the Taino

4:29

in no way diminishes the fact

4:32

that Columbus's lust for gold

4:34

drove him to nearly wipe out an

4:36

entire culture.

4:38

Meanwhile, his letter to the king and queen

4:40

of Spain, describing the gold

4:42

of the new world, was published in

4:45

numerous languages, galvanizing

4:47

conquistadors for the next century.

4:50

Driving all of them in some way

4:53

was the dream of gold. When

4:55

it was clear that the Americas were not

4:58

Asia, the dream came to be of

5:00

the riches that might be earned with the discovery

5:03

of an easier passage to the Pacific

5:05

than the fearsome strait sailed

5:07

by Magellan. Or it came to be

5:10

the dream of riches that could be accumulated

5:12

through the settlement of land on which they might

5:15

cultivate a profitable crop.

5:17

But preferable to all these prizes

5:20

was the discovery of the source of

5:22

native gold.

5:24

The rich gold mines that

5:26

Columbus failed to find on

5:29

Hispaniola. When

5:31

in 1519, Hernán Cortés landed

5:34

in Mexico and discovered the wealthy

5:36

Aztec civilization,

5:38

this original American

5:40

gold rush changed. When

5:43

Cortés marched on the Aztec

5:45

capital, imprisoned their king Moctezuma,

5:48

and seized all the gold in their

5:51

treasury, the dreams of conquistadors

5:54

turned principally to the discovery

5:57

of hidden civilizations rich in

5:59

gold that

5:59

could be looted, melted down,

6:02

and coined.

6:04

Unsurprisingly then, numerous

6:06

rumors and legends began to arise

6:09

among conquistadors and their armies

6:11

of secret cities of gold

6:14

in both South and North America,

6:17

waiting to be discovered

6:19

and plundered. This is

6:21

Historical Blindness, I'm

6:23

Nathaniel Lloyd, and I propose

6:26

an expedition into the wild

6:28

heart of colonial history,

6:31

to discover the truth about the

6:33

search for cities of gold.

6:46

Before we start, I want to thank my new patrons,

6:48

guessing at a way to say this since the

6:51

username is spelled with numbers, Kiyoki,

6:54

Louis Millichamp, and Michael

6:56

Glover. Thanks so much

6:58

to all my patrons. If

7:00

you pledge on Patreon, you can get ad-free

7:03

and exclusive episodes. I've

7:06

promised one Minnesota Month, but

7:08

I've been on a streak for a long

7:10

time of always releasing

7:12

something exclusive between each episode.

7:15

For

7:15

example, after my episode on the

7:18

Holy Grail, I released the full

7:20

40-minute audio of my interview

7:22

with friend and patron of the show, Dr.

7:25

Sean Mungert, all about the Holy Grail

7:27

legend. And after the episode

7:29

on the Holy Lance, I released

7:31

a minisode about another fabled crucifixion

7:34

relic,

7:35

the True Cross. Patron

7:37

feeds also get episodes early,

7:40

and as mentioned, their episodes are

7:42

not interrupted by advertisements

7:45

or Patreon pitches like this one. So

7:48

visit patreon.com slash

7:50

historicalblindness and support

7:52

the show. Or you can support the show by

7:54

making a one-time donation at

7:56

historicalblindness.com slash donate.

7:59

or at the Paypal link in the show

8:02

notes, or on Venmo at

8:04

historical blindness.

8:07

Now, on with the episode.

8:18

Welcome to historical blindness.

8:21

That adventure theme music tells

8:23

you that I am once again exploring

8:25

the historical context behind

8:27

one of the Indiana Jones films.

8:30

By the time this releases, the new indie

8:32

film, The Dial of Destiny, has

8:35

already released and I've already

8:37

seen it and am considering what topics

8:40

I might tackle to finally wrap

8:42

up this long-running series of standalone

8:45

episodes. In the meanwhile, although

8:48

some may want to disavow its existence,

8:51

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal

8:53

Skull actually offers more

8:56

than one potential topic that

8:58

I have long wanted to cover on

9:00

this podcast. So for my purposes,

9:03

it does exist. In fact,

9:05

I feel that in many ways this fourth

9:08

film is unfairly maligned.

9:11

But in other ways, I entirely

9:13

understand the disappointment in it.

9:15

Not because of any far-fetched

9:17

action sequences, in fact,

9:20

rewatching the films, it's hard

9:22

to get more far-fetched than jumping

9:25

from a plane in an inflatable

9:27

raft.

9:28

And even the beloved Last Crusade

9:31

has all kinds of continuity errors

9:34

in iconic action sequences

9:36

that make them less than believable.

9:39

Nuked fridges and Tarzan

9:41

vine swinging aside, the

9:44

writing on the fourth one just

9:46

doesn't live up to the others.

9:48

But this is not a film podcast,

9:50

so I'm not talking about dialogue here.

9:52

I'm talking about the object

9:55

of Indy's quest, the MacGuffin,

9:57

and the lore surrounding it.

9:59

I understand that behind the scenes

10:02

there was some push and pull between

10:04

the filmmakers regarding what this

10:07

one should be quote-unquote about,

10:10

and it really shows. There

10:12

was an effort to make this one about flying

10:14

saucers simply because it was set

10:16

in the 1950s, but

10:18

there needed to be some archaeological

10:21

angle of course,

10:23

considering Indy's profession. Thus,

10:25

the notion of ancient aliens

10:27

is featured, with that claim's connections

10:30

to the Nazca lines in Peru and

10:32

the elongated skulls of Peruvian

10:35

native cultures folded in.

10:37

But there was a need for an object,

10:40

a physical MacGuffin, so

10:42

they mashed these ideas together with

10:44

the dubious crystal skull

10:46

artifacts claimed in the 19th century

10:49

to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts.

10:52

I could and probably will devote

10:54

an episode to talking about crystal skulls,

10:57

and I most certainly will eventually

11:00

devote an episode or a series to

11:02

the claims of ancient aliens made

11:05

by Erik Von Daniken and others.

11:07

But it seems to me that the more compelling

11:10

MacGuffin, the one really worthy

11:12

of a quest by Indiana Jones,

11:14

which should have been focused on without

11:17

all the other trappings, was

11:19

the city of the aliens,

11:21

er, interdimensional beings. A

11:24

place of great wealth, a lost

11:27

city of gold, here fictionalized

11:30

as Acator, but conflated

11:32

in the film's script with

11:35

El Dorado.

11:36

The idea of Indiana Jones

11:39

seeking after a lost or hidden city

11:41

of gold is rich in historical

11:44

significance, so I took on the

11:46

search myself, or rather

11:48

the research, and found that

11:50

there was never just one city

11:53

of gold.

12:10

Before

12:10

the legend of El Dorado,

12:13

there was the legend of the land of Metta,

12:16

which originated with Diego

12:18

de Ordas, formerly a captain

12:21

under Cortez and in 1530 a governor

12:23

of some islands in

12:25

the estuary of the Amazon River.

12:28

In those years, the source of

12:30

the gold of the Americas remained a mystery.

12:33

Conquistadors expected everywhere

12:36

to find gold and silver mines

12:38

to explain the ornaments that

12:40

were traded by the cultures they encountered,

12:43

and they could not believe that it was all taken

12:45

from rivers, which most of it was.

12:49

Instead, they believed it must

12:51

have come from some hidden source.

12:53

De Ordas believed, like many,

12:56

that gold grew like

12:58

a plant in the earth,

13:00

and that because its color was associated

13:03

with that of the sun, it must grow

13:05

in greater abundance closer

13:08

to the equator.

13:09

Thus, in 1530 he organized an

13:12

expedition up the Orinoco River,

13:14

seeking its source.

13:17

He and his men traveled a thousand

13:19

miles, both relying on

13:21

the natives they encountered along the way and

13:24

making war on them.

13:26

Eventually, he reached the river's

13:28

confluence with the river Metta,

13:31

where some native prisoners shone

13:34

a gold ring and asked whether

13:36

their land contained such metal, told

13:38

De Ordas that beyond a mountain

13:41

range on the side of the Metta, there

13:43

was a city rich in gold

13:46

ruled by a one-eyed king, and

13:48

that the conquistadors did not have enough

13:51

men to conquer it, but if they

13:53

did, they could, quote, fill

13:55

their boats

13:56

with that metal, end

13:58

quote.

13:59

Ross's expedition ended in abject

14:02

failure, with the loss of most

14:04

of his men and the only thing he had to

14:07

show for his efforts a rumor

14:09

of a rich land that may have just

14:11

been a lie told by a prisoner.

14:14

But the search for the land of Meta would

14:17

animate other conquistadors as

14:19

well.

14:20

During the next few years, numerous

14:23

expeditions were undertaken into the South

14:25

American wilderness and a kind of

14:27

standard operating procedure was

14:29

developed.

14:30

Conquistadors sought out native

14:32

peoples not only to trade for gold

14:35

but also because they relied on them

14:37

for food and to carry

14:39

their luggage.

14:40

Whenever they encountered a group of indigenous

14:42

people, they traded with them and

14:45

pressed them into service. And

14:47

if they did not comply, they attacked

14:50

them by surprise and slaughtered

14:52

them and pressed them into slavery

14:54

regardless.

14:56

But to maintain the veneer of Christian

14:58

respectability, they first read

15:00

out a document called The Requirement,

15:03

often without any translation,

15:06

which explained that the native population

15:08

was required to accept Spanish

15:11

authority and Christian conversion

15:13

on the threat of rape and pillaging and

15:16

stated, absurdly, that quote,

15:19

any death or losses that result

15:21

from this are your fault. The

15:24

expeditions of conquistadors

15:26

like the German Nikolaus Federman

15:30

and Ambrosius Daufinger cut

15:32

a violent scar through

15:34

Venezuela. Many of the native

15:36

inhabitants they massacred, they

15:38

believed, were cannibals. But

15:41

ironically, members of their own expeditions

15:44

turned to cannibalism when lost

15:46

and without food.

15:48

Some of these expeditions did successfully

15:50

seize and bring back gold, but

15:53

never discovered the source of it. The

15:56

notion that hidden civilizations were

15:58

still out there, full of

15:59

Vast wealth to be stolen

16:02

grew in the minds of conquistadors and

16:04

their cut-throat adventurers when

16:07

Francisco Pizarro discovered

16:09

the Inca in Peru and

16:11

in 1532 took their ruler, Atahualpa, hostage,

16:16

demanding a literal king's

16:19

ransom.

16:20

The great wealth stripped

16:22

from the Incas just further

16:24

fired the imaginations of other adventurers,

16:27

many of whom believed the source of Incan

16:29

gold must be elsewhere,

16:32

beyond the Andes Mountains. One

16:34

Spanish governor, Geronimo Dortal,

16:37

believed that the source of Peruvian

16:39

gold was the rumored land of

16:42

Meta, and in another effort

16:44

to find this golden kingdom of the One-Eyed

16:46

King, he sent conquistador

16:48

Alonso de Herrera up the

16:51

Orinoco to find it, but

16:53

the expedition was repelled by natives.

16:56

Governor Dortal then led his own

16:58

expedition over land, but

17:00

when they believed they were nearing the fabled

17:03

land of Meta,

17:04

his men mutinied, intending

17:07

to seize the gold for themselves. They

17:10

found nothing, however, as with

17:12

later expeditions for Meta. But

17:15

in those later years, it was the

17:17

legend of a different city of gold

17:20

that animated the conquistadors.

17:23

One that it has been suggested was

17:26

the source of the rumors of the rich land

17:28

of Meta all along,

17:30

the story of El Dorado.

17:44

The legend of El Dorado was given

17:46

birth among the conquistadors and

17:49

Spanish adventurers who sacked

17:51

the Incan Empire in Peru. Interestingly,

17:54

it was not originally a rumor

17:56

of a city of gold, but of

17:58

a golden man.

17:59

land, as the name indicates. In

18:02

Spanish, gold is oro,

18:05

as in ore.

18:06

Thus, if something were made of gold,

18:09

it would be de oro, which

18:11

as an adjective would be dorada

18:14

in the feminine or dorado in

18:17

the masculine.

18:18

If it actually referred to a city or

18:20

land, it would be formed in the feminine

18:23

and would need the further noun, la

18:25

Ciudad dorada or la

18:27

Tierra dorada.

18:29

We can better understand the name El

18:31

Dorado when we find its first

18:34

use.

18:34

After Francisco Pizarro accepted

18:37

the Incan ruler Atahualpa's ransom,

18:40

which was literally his weight in gold,

18:43

he had the king executed anyway

18:46

and marched on the capital city Cusco,

18:49

pillaging the treasury of all its

18:51

gold and smelting it into

18:54

bullion.

18:55

By one contemporaneous report, they

18:57

coined more than 1.3 million

19:00

gold pesos.

19:01

Yet Pizarro and others would

19:04

never shake the uneasy feeling that

19:06

the Incas had escaped Peru

19:09

with a great deal of their gold.

19:11

Indeed, hearing that one of Atahualpa's

19:14

generals had mustered an army at

19:17

the northern Incan capital Quito,

19:19

the Spanish marched on, not

19:22

only to stamp out further resistance

19:24

but also because they expected

19:26

to find more gold there. To

19:29

their disappointment, they did not, and

19:31

though they tortured captured Incan

19:33

leaders to death,

19:35

they were unable to discover the whereabouts

19:37

of any further treasure, leading

19:39

to a long-lived legend of

19:42

lost Incan gold.

19:44

During the scramble to capture

19:46

the leaders, there were reports of

19:49

a native chief from the north called

19:51

El Indio Dorado, the

19:54

Golden Indian,

19:55

whose gold-rich tribe had

19:58

allied with the Incas. This

20:00

was 1534, and not

20:03

much was made of this chief or his tribe

20:05

at the time.

20:06

But as rumors spread, they

20:09

changed. Seven years later, as

20:11

recorded by soldier and historian

20:14

Fernandez de Obeido, the Spanish

20:16

in Quito were still talking about

20:19

the Golden Chief, and now the story

20:21

was that he was a king who was

20:23

daily anointed with oil and

20:26

a fine powdered gold.

20:29

Researchers of the region were known to paint themselves

20:31

with resins and ground plants,

20:34

so the notion was in keeping with extant

20:36

cultural

20:36

practices while hinting

20:39

at a great wealth of gold. The

20:41

earliest accounts say that the Spanish

20:44

learned of this Golden Chief from

20:46

a quote itinerant Indian

20:49

end quote that they captured and interrogated,

20:52

giving the story an even shakier foundation.

20:56

Over time, the legend evolved

20:58

further,

20:59

such that this king, El Dorado,

21:02

was said to cover himself daily

21:04

in gold and then bathe

21:06

in a lake, and all his people

21:09

made regular offerings of gold,

21:11

which were also deposited in this

21:14

sacred lake's waters, such

21:16

that this lake, it was thought, must

21:18

contain vast quantities of sunken

21:21

treasure.

21:22

And eventually, the story, as legends

21:24

do, became simplified, such

21:27

that this king ruled over

21:29

a city near that lake, a

21:31

city equally rich in gold,

21:34

nay covered in gold, built

21:37

of gold, a city also

21:40

for ease of memory, called

21:42

El Dorado.

21:47

Now for a brief intermission.

21:59

CNBC and I'm so excited

22:02

to keep the conversation going with my new podcast,

22:05

How She Does It, where I sit down with

22:07

female leaders to dive into all things

22:09

women, money, and power. Every

22:12

guest is the kind of leader I wished I'd had

22:14

as a mentor, and we're holding nothing back

22:17

as we explore what's really going on with the

22:19

economy and the world. Join

22:21

us on How She Does It for an exclusive

22:23

cocktail party conversation every

22:25

week to find out what it really means to

22:28

live and work as a woman

22:29

with power. Subscribe to us

22:32

wherever you get your podcasts and learn more

22:34

at HerMoney.com.

22:38

The information that I

22:40

am providing today is coming from

22:42

higher dimensional consciousness.

22:44

Things got so weird during 2020 and

22:47

it wasn't just the QAnon conspiracy

22:49

theorists. This new age channel

22:51

told us. Donald Trump is a

22:53

massive and powerful

22:55

light worker. A light worker, and then what

22:57

about this Oprah endorsed best

23:00

selling feminist health icon talking about

23:02

heavy metals.

23:02

That are in vaccines that make our

23:05

bodies literally into an antenna with

23:07

5G. As we continued studying what

23:09

we now call conspirituality,

23:12

it only got more intense. This is

23:14

the cult of Baphomet. This

23:16

is Molokite worshipping stuff.

23:19

It gets very gory in the basement.

23:21

And it culminated with that shaman dude

23:23

showing up

23:24

at the Capitol insurrection. But

23:27

it didn't stop there. Every

23:29

week on Conspiratuality Podcast,

23:31

we track the overlaps between new age

23:33

spirituality and far right conspiracy

23:36

cults.

23:41

Now back to the show.

23:53

Gonzalo Jimenez de Cazara,

23:55

a conquistador who quested after

23:57

El Dorado and failed.

23:59

and the soldier and poet Juan de Castellanos

24:03

came to believe that El Dorado was

24:05

none other than their own province

24:08

of New Granada,

24:09

or more specifically the area around

24:11

the city of Bogota, in what

24:13

is today Colombia. And

24:16

this notion is actually accepted

24:18

by many today as the most likely

24:21

case. First of all, the area

24:23

is north of Quito, where the first

24:25

rumors of the Golden Chief said his

24:27

kingdom resided, and more than

24:29

that it was beyond a mountain range

24:32

on a bank of the Meta River,

24:34

further identifying it with the fabled

24:37

land of Meta. The Muisca

24:39

or Chincha people that lived

24:41

and were conquered there had previously

24:44

been a well-established and populous

24:46

kingdom that has been compared with

24:49

the Aztecs and the Muiscas,

24:51

and they worshipped and made offerings

24:53

at a nearby sacred lake, the

24:55

Guatavita, a peculiar perfectly

24:58

round lake, which actually

25:00

appears to be a crater lake.

25:03

Indeed, since Guatavita was

25:05

identified with the lake of the

25:07

El Dorado legend, numerous attempts

25:10

were made in the 16th century and

25:12

the 19th century to drain

25:14

it and obtain the gold said

25:17

to have been deposited in its depths.

25:20

In 1580, a businessman from

25:22

Bogota actually excavated

25:25

the rim of the lake, cutting a notch in

25:27

it to let its waters out.

25:29

Though he did supposedly discover

25:31

some gold ornaments as the water

25:33

receded, the earthen walls

25:36

of his excavation collapsed

25:38

and ended up killing many of his workers.

25:41

The next major attempt to drain

25:43

the lake was made in 1898 by a British contractor

25:46

who actually

25:49

succeeded in draining the lake entirely

25:52

by means of a tunnel. What he was left

25:54

with was only a pit of mud

25:57

that his company had difficulty finding

25:59

anything in, especially

26:01

when it dried as hard as concrete

26:04

in the sun. Now the lake

26:06

has been declared a protected area

26:09

for conservation and has been restored.

26:12

Thus whatever may be hidden in this sediment

26:14

on its floor will remain

26:16

a mystery. But even if Guatavita

26:19

and the Muisca lands of Bogota

26:22

provide a tidy solution to

26:24

the mystery of El Dorado, this

26:26

does not mean the legend was

26:28

real. In fact,

26:29

the Muisca were not at

26:32

all rich in gold, for they

26:34

did not produce it themselves, but

26:37

rather acquired it through trade

26:39

with other tribes like the

26:41

Incas. As there was no golden

26:44

kingdom in Bogota to conquer,

26:46

the legend of El Dorado shifted elsewhere

26:49

to be associated with other lakes.

26:53

Indeed examining 16th century

26:55

maps of South America, we find

26:57

El Dorado on the shores of lakes that

27:00

seem to always be in different

27:02

unexplored reaches of the Amazon.

27:05

Funny enough, the name of

27:07

the lake is always the word

27:09

for lake in some native language.

27:12

El Dorado came to be associated with

27:15

a lake called Manoa, which

27:17

was actually just the word for

27:19

lake in Arawak, and

27:22

Lake Parima, which meant simply

27:25

Big Lake in Carib.

27:27

Thus we get the sense that just

27:30

as native peoples being attacked

27:32

and interrogated by conquistadors

27:35

simply waved them on to the next tribe's

27:37

territory, assuring them that they'd find

27:40

the gold they looked for elsewhere,

27:42

so too when the conquistadors started

27:45

asking about lakes, they just told

27:47

them what they wanted to hear about

27:49

a lake and gold off

27:52

that away somewhere.

28:00

At this point I should

28:02

address the fact that there is a clearly

28:05

defined historical myth representing

28:07

the Spanish as pillagers of the

28:09

New World lusting only after gold

28:12

and committing all sorts of atrocities

28:14

to get what they wanted.

28:15

This is known as the Black Legend

28:18

of the Spanish and it was widely

28:20

employed by the English as a propaganda

28:23

tool during the two empires'

28:25

colonial wars.

28:27

I want to be clear here. I

28:29

think some may look at my episode

28:32

on Columbus and this episode

28:34

and think that I am promoting this Black

28:37

Legend.

28:38

Well, in a way I

28:40

am because I reject the

28:43

notion that we should overlook Spanish

28:46

atrocities

28:47

which certainly and commonly occurred

28:50

in order to appreciate accomplishments

28:54

like their taming of the wilderness, building

28:56

of infrastructure, and advancement

28:58

of agriculture.

29:00

I reject this because those things

29:02

were accomplished on the backs

29:04

of the native cultures they subjugated.

29:07

But I do acknowledge that there is a

29:10

Black Legend of the Spanish insofar

29:13

as the English were no better and

29:16

engaged in all the same inhumanities.

29:19

I have been careful in this episode to refer to

29:21

Europeans or conquistadors

29:24

rather than just the Spanish. And

29:27

I have already pointed out two German

29:29

conquistadors,

29:30

Federman and Dahlfinger.

29:33

Now it should be pointed out that in the late

29:35

16th and early 17th centuries the

29:38

English became the more prominent seekers

29:41

after El Dorado. Having

29:43

heard the somewhat famous story

29:45

of one Spanish soldier who claimed

29:48

very dubiously to have been abducted

29:51

by natives and taken to the lost

29:53

city of Gold in a blindfold,

29:55

Sir

29:55

Walter Raleigh became

29:58

preoccupied with finding Elder

29:59

El Dorado himself. Since

30:02

they did not have a presence in South America

30:05

or as much knowledge of its inhabitants and

30:07

geography as the Spanish, he

30:09

descended on Trinidad, captured

30:11

the Spanish colony's governor, Antonio

30:14

de Barrio, who had undertaken several

30:16

El Dorado expeditions himself, and

30:19

interrogated him to discover all

30:21

he knew about the gold city's supposed

30:24

whereabouts. Raleigh would

30:26

mount more than one expedition

30:28

into the interior of

30:29

the continent to search for El

30:32

Dorado, all of them failures

30:34

of course, and he would eventually

30:37

be beheaded by King James

30:39

for his failure to obey orders

30:42

to avoid conflict with the Spanish. Such

30:45

expeditions continued sporadically,

30:48

sponsored by the English and the Dutch as

30:50

well as the Spanish into the 18th

30:53

century, none of them succeeding

30:55

since El Dorado is a myth

30:58

and all of them resulting

30:59

in some loss of life. Thus,

31:03

the legend of El Dorado drove

31:05

European exploration and exploitation

31:08

of Latin America

31:10

for around 250 years.

31:25

The way that European map makers

31:28

haphazardly placed El Dorado

31:30

on maps of the continent, thereby

31:32

fueling belief in it as a physical

31:34

place, recalls the treatment

31:36

of some myths of antiquity, like

31:39

that of Atlantis.

31:41

Indeed, even the name of the Amazon

31:44

referenced the legendary homeland

31:46

of the Amazon warrior women. Likewise,

31:49

the name given to the Caribbean archipelago

31:52

on which Columbus first landed, the

31:54

Antilles, referenced another

31:57

old legend that also transformed

31:59

into

31:59

a a modern myth and drove

32:02

further expeditions into North

32:04

America, searching for lost cities

32:07

of gold.

32:08

The name connects the islands to the

32:10

Iberian legend of Antilia,

32:13

an island of seven cities, said

32:16

to be a kind of utopia. This

32:18

legend partakes of a long tradition depicting

32:21

paradisal islands in the Atlantic

32:24

Ocean,

32:24

including that of Atlantis and

32:26

the fortunate Isles of Homer.

32:29

This legend was of later origin

32:32

than those, though, telling of seven

32:34

bishops who fled Spain

32:36

with numerous parishioners during its

32:39

conquest by Muslim Arabs

32:41

in the year 711 CE.

32:44

It was said they sailed westward

32:47

into the Atlantic and landed

32:49

at a bountiful island on which

32:51

each bishop built a city,

32:54

so that the inhabitants of their seven cities

32:57

would not risk the peace they had established.

33:00

They were said to have burned all their ships.

33:03

It's not at all clear when

33:06

this legend was born, however, as

33:08

the first record of it is in maps

33:10

of the late Middle Ages, on which

33:13

Antilia appeared as one

33:15

of many such phantom islands,

33:18

drawn in different locations, depending

33:20

on the whims of the cartographer.

33:23

In 1530, when a captive

33:26

native in New Spain, or Spanish-occupied

33:29

Mexico,

33:30

told the Spanish of a land to

33:32

the north with seven large

33:34

settlements rich in gold that

33:37

he remembered visiting as a child,

33:39

some believed the fabled seven

33:41

cities of Antilia had been

33:44

located. Years later,

33:46

in 1536, four survivors

33:48

of a failed expedition to Florida, led

33:51

by Albar Nunez-Cabeza de

33:53

Vaca, told a similar story.

33:56

Their expedition had failed to find

33:58

gold during their northward March in

34:00

Florida and, facing stiff

34:02

opposition from natives, decided

34:05

to build rafts and sail westward

34:08

up the Gulf Coast, where they were

34:10

mostly drowned in a storm at

34:12

Galveston Bay.

34:14

The survivors lived as castaways

34:16

on Galveston Island, then were

34:18

captured by natives and remained in

34:20

captivity for several years before

34:23

the four survivors escaped.

34:25

They traveled across modern-day

34:27

Texas and northeastern Mexico

34:30

and arrived with a rumor told

34:32

to them by the Sonora tribe about

34:34

populous and wealthy native lands

34:37

to the north.

34:38

Specifically, Cabeza de Vaca mentioned

34:41

riches of gold, silver, and

34:43

turquoise, and thus the legend

34:46

of an island of seven cities

34:48

was transformed into

34:50

a legend of seven cities of

34:52

gold somewhere in

34:55

North America.

35:02

In 1538, two

35:05

Franciscan friars reached what

35:07

is believed to be modern-day Arizona

35:10

and reported on a vast and

35:12

rich native civilization, probably

35:15

the Pueblo peoples of the southwestern

35:18

United States, and their report

35:20

encouraged another expedition led

35:22

by another monk of the same order,

35:25

Frémarcos Deniza, who ended

35:27

up in modern-day New Mexico and

35:30

likewise learned of a populous

35:32

native civilization

35:32

farther north, said to be

35:35

rich, with magnificent two-

35:37

and three-story houses. Deniza

35:39

called this place Cibola,

35:42

and even though he had only heard about it and

35:44

did not visit it himself, he claimed

35:47

to have seen it with his own eyes. Thus,

35:50

when the Spanish mustered a major expedition

35:52

to find and exploit these rumored

35:55

seven cities of Cibola, headed

35:57

by the conquistador Francisco Bázquez,

35:59

de Coronado, Frémarcos

36:02

Denizá went along as a guide.

36:05

When Coronado eventually arrived

36:07

at the Seven Cities, which

36:10

were actually seven adobe

36:12

farming villages of the Zuni people,

36:15

devoid of any wealth,

36:16

Denizá was roundly cursed

36:19

for a liar and sent back

36:21

to New Spain. The rest of the

36:23

expedition stayed, though, exploring

36:26

the southwestern U.S. and continuing

36:29

their search for the Seven Cities.

36:32

One native informant, whom

36:34

they called the Turk, told

36:36

the Spanish of a wealthy nation called

36:39

Golden Quivira, to the east,

36:42

where the inhabitants were said to all eat

36:44

from plates and bowls of gold.

36:47

Thus, Coronado went marching

36:49

again after yet another city

36:52

of gold, traveling all the way to Kansas

36:55

to find only the grasshuts of

36:57

the Wichita people.

36:59

Deceived yet again by his guide,

37:02

Coronado had the Turk garroted

37:05

and before long returned to

37:07

Mexico.

37:08

Today, the Turk is viewed

37:10

by the Pueblo native culture as

37:13

a hero and martyr

37:15

who purposely fed the conquistador

37:17

disinformation in order to lead

37:19

the Spanish away from his

37:21

beleaguered people.

37:32

Back in South America, the suspicion

37:35

that the Incas had escaped

37:37

with most of their gold would continue

37:39

to haunt the Spanish and fuel

37:42

further myths of lost cities

37:44

of gold. Among the Incas

37:46

themselves, there long existed

37:48

a myth about the Incari,

37:51

whose father was the son itself and

37:53

who was king of the Incas. This

37:56

myth evolved when Pizarro

37:59

had king of gold.

37:59

Atahualpa killed.

38:02

It was said their ruler swore

38:04

to return from the dead to exact

38:06

vengeance, and it was claimed that the

38:08

Spanish had dismembered Atahualpa

38:11

and buried parts of his body in separate

38:13

places to prevent his return, but

38:15

that his head was growing toward his

38:18

feet, and when at last he was whole

38:20

again, he would be the Incari,

38:23

he would destroy the Spanish, and

38:25

he would restore the Incan civilization

38:28

at the mythical city of Paititi.

38:31

Through

38:32

the years this Paititi

38:34

the Incas spoke of was taken

38:36

to be the lost city to

38:38

which it was always suspected they

38:41

had escaped with their gold.

38:43

While the term El Dorado has

38:45

today become more of a metaphor than

38:47

a literal place, expeditions

38:50

to search for Paititi have

38:52

become far more common. In 1925,

38:55

the man some believe was an inspiration

38:59

for Indiana Jones, Percy

39:01

Fawcett,

39:02

set out to find what he called the

39:04

City of Z, or Z, as

39:06

he would have said, which has been identified

39:09

with Paititi legends by some, and

39:12

he disappeared, his fate a

39:15

mystery fit perhaps for

39:17

another episode.

39:18

In the 1950s, Nazi

39:21

propagandist Hans Ertl claimed

39:23

to have discovered the ruins of the

39:25

city. Then in 1970, an American journalist

39:27

went in search

39:30

of Paititi and like Fawcett before

39:32

him, disappeared in the jungle.

39:35

Since then, journalists, researchers,

39:37

pseudo-historians, and amateur

39:40

explorers of every stripe

39:42

have mounted expeditions for

39:44

Paititi, many just as

39:47

fodder for travel shows and bad

39:49

history television. Likewise,

39:52

there are even in the 20th century

39:54

continued efforts to locate

39:56

the mythical Lake Parima associated

39:59

with El

39:59

These modern

40:02

efforts more and more rely

40:04

on aerial photography, satellite

40:07

imagery, and radar topography

40:09

technology. It is hard to

40:11

imagine a greater anachronism

40:14

than this, wasting state-of-the-art

40:16

technology in search of places

40:19

we have long understood

40:21

to be figments of European

40:23

minds, adult by

40:25

gold fever.

40:39

As

40:54

always, thanks go out to my partner patrons.

41:09

I'm

41:24

Ben Shockley and Benny Slater.

41:26

Thank you all for following me

41:28

on this expedition right

41:31

into the dark heart of a myth.

41:34

This podcast is part of the Airwave Media

41:36

Podcast Network. Visit airwavemedia.com

41:40

to listen and subscribe to their other fine shows,

41:43

like The Conspirators and

41:45

Southern Gothic.

41:47

Some music on this episode was licensed

41:49

through a Blue Dot Sessions Blanket

41:51

License at the time of the episode's publication.

41:54

Check out the show notes for a list of the

41:56

tracks used.

41:59

theme music is called Adventure

42:02

Theme by Adam Monroe and

42:04

was licensed commercially through Pond5.

42:08

Other music on this podcast is copyright

42:10

Alex Kish. Visit alexkishmusic.com

42:14

and contact him to get compositions for

42:16

your own projects. Additional music

42:18

by Kai Engel and by

42:21

Kevin MacLeod, licensed under

42:23

a Creative Commons Attribution license.

42:26

You can support the show by pledging on Patreon

42:29

or on

42:29

PayPal. Find those links in the show

42:32

notes. Or find me on Venmo.

42:35

At Historical Blindness. Until

42:37

next time, remember, myths

42:39

evolve like statements made

42:42

in the telephone game. If they have

42:44

any basis in truth, it is soon

42:47

lost as it spreads orally

42:49

like a rumor, or electronically

42:51

through online platforms today.

42:54

But changing in the telling, with purposeful

42:57

embellishments and deceptions sometimes

43:00

introduced, such that a one-eyed

43:02

king becomes a gilded man,

43:05

and a thatch-roofed village becomes

43:07

a gleaming city of gold.

43:17

Hi everyone, I'm Karen Feinerman.

43:19

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43:22

I can't wait for you to join me for my new podcast,

43:25

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