The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-17
is A MAGIC CITY
A Wonderful Mirage That Has De.
ceived the World for Centuries.
It Appears In the Wilds of Gusana-A
Traveller Says the Mirage Is Appar-
emily as Real as the Sight
of New York.
IcoPYRIGHT, 1921


was a geographical name Of world
wide celebrity some centuries ago, it's
history has almost completely faded
from the memory of mankind. Only in
the musty old records Of early South
American exploration is anything like
an Ineligible account of the ver;ta bic
original ''El Dorado" to be found, and
these are SO like the wild flights of a
romantic fancy that the casual student
of history passes them by with q smile.
And yet these ancient Spanish and
English records are not altogether
fanciful. They describe FL Dorado as
a city OF northern South America, the
metropolis of the land of Manoa, a
region comprising what is now known
as the Central Guianes. 1t was said to
be Inhabited by race far superior to
the wild coast Indians, yersed in arts
and sciences corresponding to those OF
the Old World and to which they add
ed marvellous acquaintance with the
mysteries of magic. But they were in
tensely insular, refusing all intercourse
with the outside world and warding
off intrusion by magic spells Their
city was built of gold, and had actu.
ally been occasionally glimpsed by ex.
plorers, but vanished the instant any
effort was made to approach it. The
Spaniards had seen its towering spires,
cleaning domes and frowning battle
ments rising in the distance from the
margin of an extensive lake that
lay at the base of a mountain range;
but it ever mysteriously vanished, dis.
solving into the simmer of the morn.
ing sunlight.
This is all that was ever known Of
Ell Dorado, the sole founda ton for the
many-sided fabric of romance which
the world has long ago forgotten to be
amused by; and that much 1 had
learned from my researches into Amer,
lean history when the pursuit of or.
chids-those radiant expressions of ma
lures artistic soul-took me for the
first time into the wilds of the
Guianas. During my sojourn among
the Indians of Quatata, a settlement
situated on an eminence overlooking
the so-called lake of Amoocoo or
Paraima, l heard from them a story
that struck me as duplicating that told
by their ancestors to the olden Spanish
explorers; story that, if true, indi-
Gated that these people dwelt in the
vicinity of one of the most marvellous
miragic phenomena of the world; for
they described to me picture town"
that sometimes appeared across the
lake in the height of the rainy season,
at early dawn, which was greater than
Georgetown. Incredibility gave place
to attention when / recollected the
Spanish legend of Ell Dorado, the more
so as that city was always seen at the
dim hour of dawn after copious rains.
The idea that possibly / had STUN
bled on the true solution of the ancient
legend determined me to remain in the
neighborhood during the rainy season,
which was now at hand, especially as
there was every reason TO believe that
this was the spot whence the Spanish
explorers had viewed their Ell Dorado
Quatata, as L have said, is situated on
an eminence. Beneath this the sur
rounding savannah sweeps away in
slightly depressed plain to the noun
tians that bound it to the west.
Through the savannah trickle innum-
cradle little streams which render it
somewhat swampy even during the
fierce heats of the summer months; but
in the rainy season, swelled by the in
cessant precipitation of storm waters
from the mountains, they spread over
all the plain, unite their turbid little
foods and form an extensive sheet of
slowly-moving water. This is Sir
Walter Raleigh's lake of salt water,
two hundred leagues long, like unto
Mare Caspium," on which the ''citie of
Msnoa" was said to stand
The hour had come. There was a
sharp but breoing bite In the air sug-
gestive of clearer skies above the hang
ing fog of night which was even now
lifting TO allow the gray dawn 10 stream
down through its slowly drifting folds,
and soon the rosy luster of sunrise was
IN the sky diffusing itself in tints of
delicaoy over the wide |
of the eastern heavens. Then !
the fairy fingers of light commenced to
paint the canvas that was thus toned
for her. and the gorgeous picture was
great fsn-like blending Of
tints glowing with indeScrioable radi- |
ance, that spread from the line Of the |
horizon to the zenith.
In the west, above the mountains,
hung a cloud bank Of densest white |
like a damasked figure on the opal |
escent haze of the sky; but it glowed !
and rapidly into a dazzling
whiteness as of molten silver whilst |
the duller hue of the heavens deepened |
into aspurple grey, and finally assumed /
the lustrous azure OF the tropics. Grad |
ually, almost imperceptibly, the masses |
OF white clouds shifted and rifted until /
one elongated, rugged and confused 1
line rolled down about the mountain 4
sides and hung over the great spurs
that sprung abruptls from the farther 1
of the lake. Anon the full 1
light of the now risen sun began to |
pour forth from the east, and each /
ragged point OF that dense cloud belt \
became illuminated with the amber 1
Iuster so peculiarly the color Of dawn. |
AT the same time the mountain peaks /
md their spiny slopes reared them
selves out of the thinning upper fold
that, melting into whisps, wreathed /
about the peaks like coronets of snow 1
And now a startled exclamation of |
wonder and delight that there was no 4
1ne u hear broke from me as the real
cation Of expectation formed itself
INTO the field of vision. For on the
opposite shore of the lake appeared
The verisimilitude Of city! The illu-
,ioa was perfect, both as regards gen
.ral appearance and the merest detail