Guyana, whose rich feet are mines of gold. Whose head knocked against the roof of stars. Stands on her tip-toes at fair England looking. Kissing her hands, lowering her mighty breast. And every sign of submission making to be her sister and her daughter both. Of our most sacred maid.
(Adamson, Jack H & Folland, Harold (1969) “The Shepherd of the Ocean,” Gambit, Boston)
Sir Walter Raleigh so believed in the legend of El Dorado, ruled by the Emperor El Dorado, that he spent his entire fortune fitting out expeditions bound for its imperial city, Manoa. The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas and the treasure that flowed into the Spanish treasury dazzled the minds of European monarchs. Raleigh observed that the Spanish wealth consisted mainly of silver and speculated that America’s gold existed elsewhere.
The Empire of Guiana is directly east from Peru. It hath more abundance of gold than any part of Peru, and as many or more great cities than Peru had; it is governed by the same laws, and the people obey the same religion and the same form of