THE SHAM EL-DORADO. (From the 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' October 10.)

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 618, 17 March 1852, Page 3

THE SHAM EL-DORADO. (From the 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' October 10.)

Gold, although the most piecious of metals, is also the most widely-diffused. There is hardly a country under the sun in the debiis of whose roclcs, or in the bed of whobe nveis, gold has not been found. Even the least civilized nations have been found to possess stores of this precious metal ; " bai biric pearls and gold" have been more peculiarly the characteristic treasures of rude than of civilised humanity. Indians and Negroes, Scythians and the Red Men of America; — theie is scarcely an aboriginal tube on the face of the i>lobe which has not had ornaments of the "yellow ore." It s»ems to have hern one of the first metals discovered by mankind ; and its abundance in eaily times mny not improbably have had some connexion with the Golden title bestowed upon the fiiht Age of our race. The reason of this early abundance of gold is due to the fact, that not only the Pataozoic class of rocks, in winch gold is found, exists to some extent m every quarter of the globe, butthat, unlikeallothermetalb.gold is found on the surface of the earth, and in a foim which needs but the simplest process (often none at nil) to convert it into the pure metal. Its otiginal bed is in the quaits- veins which intersect the granitic mountainranges of the world — the Urals, Alps, Andes, &c. ; and wherever these quartz-veins crop out at the surface, and the action of the atmosphere has decomposed them, there is gold found in the debris— in the "fine dust," as Job observed neaily four thousand jears ago. In tins debris it exists in the form of thin flakes or scales, and often in lumps of considerable size ; and the washing 1 down of tins dust into the lavines and wateicourses, by the rains, has mulcted nunferons the beds of many of the livers of the world. Thus the Tag us, Pactolus, ai d other riveis, were celebrated in ancient times for their golden sands. In some cases, doubtle-s, : the auriferous rocks from which these sands denved their tieasures have become exhausted; but probably not a (ow of these once-famous streams still roll down golden grains, although the dearnessof labour in recent times has diverted mankind from so unprofitable a pursuit. Widely di (Fused, however, as this precious metal is, the cupidity of man has often led him to seek it where it did not exist; so that the title EI-Doiado (in early times bestowed upon those golden regions) was for long, indeed until these few years back, one of most questionable chararte', and all but synonimous with Utopia— an "airy nothing"— a name" without a real " habitation." The parent of all the sham Eldor.idas— the "great sham," as Caihle would call it — made a distinguished figure in the lusloiy of Europe some three centuries ago; and as it has just made a new, and wa hope a "last appearance" this year (which we shall notice ere we conclude), we think it worth our while to )ake up some of its misdeeds in the olden tune. The oiigin of this singular phantom, which for ages dazzled and deluded the mobt adventurous spitits of Europe, dates back to the eia of the first discovery of the New Woild. Misled by the imperfect science of his day, the illustrious Columbus imagined that one pait of Southern America was nearer ttie sun than the rest of the woild ; and influenced by the fen our of his imagination and the novelty of the scenes which on landing he beheld aiound him, lie believed that there the original Paiadise of our race was to he found. This idea of his seemed to be confirmed by the reports of the natives; and soon it became generally credited that a golden region existed in the interior of the countiy lying between the Orinoco and the Amazons. Its rocks veie represented as impregnated with gold, the reins of which lay so near the surface as to make n shine with a dazzling resplendency ; and its capital— Manoa ■ — was said to consist of houses covered with plates of gold, and to bo built upon a vast lake called Parnna, the <mnds of which were auriferous. Among the many stories told of this wealthy region, one Maitinez, a Spaniard, deponed that, having been made a pnsoner by the Guianians, he was by them caiiied to their golden capital, where lip remained several years, and was then conveyed blindfold to the borders, that he might not be able to make known the appi ouches to that envied piincipality. Yon II u ten, also, and his companions in arms, solemnly avenvd that they saw— but, by a body of fc roeious Indians, with whom they had a long and bloody comb t, were pi evented from teaching — a place containing stiuctures whose loofs shone with all the brilliancy of gold. The tales of this golden land weie not altogether fabulous, and the repent investigations of Hutnboldt afford an explanation of many of these recitals. When near the sources of the Orinoco, hcjinfoims us, he found the belief in El-Dorado still existing among the natives ; and he points out the distiict between the sources of the Rio Es-equibo and the H\o Branco as furnishing the groundwork of the fiction. " lleie, in a river called Panma, and in a small Like connected with it, Amucu, which is occasionally augmented by inundations, we have basis enough on which to found the belief of the great lake bearing the name of the former ; and in the islets and rocks of mica-state and talc which use up within and aiound the latter, reflecting from their shining suifacps the rays of an ardent sun, we have materials out of which to form that gorgeous capital whose temples and houses were oveilaid with plates of beaten gold We may judge of the brilliancy of these deceptions appearances from learning that the natives asoibed the lustre of the Magellanic clouds, or nebulae of the southern hemisphere, to the biigbt reflections produced by them." Moreover, we find an old resident in Guiana representing part of the country as abounding in " mines of white stoiv-, in which are much naluial and fine gold, which runneth between the ' stones hko veins." Another sa\s — "'The high country is full of white sparie, and if the white spanes of this kind be in amain rock, they are ceituinly mines of "old or silver, or both : I made trial of a piece of <.p,irre, and I found that it held both gold and silver, winch gave me satis-faction that theie be rich mines in the countiy. '' Though failure succeeded failure in the attempt to roach this fabulous kingdom, each now adventurer experienced liftle di iiutlty in finding comrades to embaik with him. The excitement in Euiope was ex'iaoidinary. In Spain, we aie told, the " the desire to be included in the adventure excited an eager competition, and led multitudes to dispose of their piop"ity — even landed — never doubting to be lvpaid ten-fold horn iho

tiensuies of El-Doiado. For long the belief linsjeied in the minds of men. In the cat ly pan of last century, the Jesuit Guiuilla unhesitatingly embiaced the old opinion; a few yeais afteiwauls a Spanish mining company attempted to extract gold fiom tlie al!uiin« rocks ot Venezuela, hut failed, after incuiring great loss ; and about 1770, J)on Manuel Ceiiunion, the governoi of Spanish Guiana, was so ardent in Ins fiiilli, that ono moie expedition set out on tins luckli'&s entoiptise. CM ibis concluding paity, only one man returned to nanate the chsasteis which overwhelmed lm comiades ! It was a g.illant spirit that buoyed up tbo-e old adventuters in seaich of the Golden Land, it was not the mere lovp of gain than animated our own Raleigh and the eaily exploieis. The Paradisaic dream of Columbus lingeied m their heaits, and an overheated imagination lured them on in the hopeless search. Toiling onwauls in courageous hope, eveiything seemed indicative of their approach to the golden land : rocks of mica glittering in the sunbeams weie deemed its golden baniers, — the hues of sunset its gorgeous skies. But the path was peulous as the goal was visionaiy. Hunger, pestilence, and fatii^ue, thinned then 4 lanks and bowed tlivir spmts; and many a gallant heart, woithy of a nobler fite, thus fell a victim to Us high-wiought /ancies amid the loin wilds of Venezuela. " The truth is," says a correspondent, writing from City .Bolivar, " Venezuelan Guiana consists meiely of unpeneliable forests and pestilential swamp s, possessed by poisonous reptiles, insects, and croeochle«, and inhabited by a few tubes of Indians, who are publiclj' bought and sold as slaves, and made to woik for the benefit of their enslaver*-." Yet into this vast Maiemma — this innlaiia- breeding jungle — have attempts been made, and not wholly unsuccessfully, to luie Hntish capital and enterpnse. The lazy Creoles, and above rll, the scheming speculators of the Venezuel m " Ladionera," eager to decoy capitalists or mimigiants from Britain to come and open for them their hitherto useless swan.ps, have held out the golden luie of anothei Eldoiado, which only requires a little British energy to discover and bung to the surface ! " Theie aio plenty of those native gentry," snys the above-quoted writer, " ready to offer them-elves as directors or agents for such a company, if John Bull (of late restive about Spanish Ameiican mines) will only be tichled into parting with hs money upon the secunty ot Venezuelan honor and good J'anh." Our countrymen have so often burned thpir fin^eis in that lire, that we were not prepared to heir of Iresh victims now. But such is the case. Our West Indian colonies have been the quaiter which has furnished the last victims. Enticed by the flaming announcements of the so called Yuiuaiy Gold Washing— or, as it was bombastically designated, " El Mineral AurifWo del Yuruary," not a few ill-staiied speculators fiom the West Indies, and some even from our own island**, landed on the shores of Guiana, in search of those boundless liches, which the Venezuelan sharpers impudently asbi-rted, in their reports and journals, weie to be had "almost for the tiouble of picking up." The dismal swamps which eie long surrounded them, soon undeceived them, and the morliferous climate took fearful vengeance on their folly. Penniless and foiloin, they were ready to peiish — and would have perished, for aught then deceivers cared. But a t'liend was nigh. At 'he vei}' outset of the al.egcd discoveries of tiie "gold washings," our Charge d'Aflaires at Caiaccas had iho foiesight to see through and expose, in cuculais to the governors of our West Indian colonies, the dupciy of (he glowing accounts of their richness, ai tfully set afloat by ibe Spanish Governor of Venezuelan Guiana, Jose Thomas Machaclo — a great knave, who seems to have aJded to his base deceit the moat vexatious and oppiessive despotism. By this judicious measure many weie kept back from the hopeless enterprise; andifagieat benefit was thus conferred on such persons by the foiesight of our Charge d'Affaires at Caraccas, one not less important was tendered by our Vice-Consul at Bohvai, Mi: lliathison, in rescuing from the jaws of denfh the luckltss individuals who bad been lured to their ruin. The poor fellows were entirely destitute, and but for the humane and timely aid thus affoided them, they must inevitably have peiUhed of disease and hunger. The latest accounts fiom Guiana state that the last of this luckless party were shipped on the 30tli of July for Trinidad, at Mr. Matlnson's expense. It has long ago passed into a proverb, that ''All is not gold that glitters;" but it is singular to find this sham Eldorado run alter now-a days, when so many genuine ones aie turning up in all quaiteis of the world ; to find tins "exploded fallacy" (a& it is now the fishion to call such things) still s'lowmg vitality after three centuries ol successive exposures. En or has not only a^ many heads as the ll\din, but as many lives a.l*o ; and the humiliating assertion seems but too tiue, that the wisdom which Suflenng has (aught to one geneiation is soon foi gotten by its unsuffenng successor.