Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 63

desire for it. Rumors of its presence sent men to the four comers o f
the globe. Among them were Marco Polo, Columbus, Pizarro,
Cortez, De Soto, Coronado, and even the favorite of Queen Eliza
beth, Sir Francis Drake. Yet thousands o f unknowns also took part
in the search, for a treasure house of gold, whether belonging to a
nation or an individual, meant power, and for power, men would
sell their souls.
When the Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas, they
looked for their own “El Dorado” or “Gilded One,” who suppos
edly left the remnants of gold smeared over his body in a lake.
Cortez, Pizarro, De Soto, and the great Coronado took part in the
search, the latter looking for the Seven Cities of Cibola, but found
there only poor natives subsisting on frijoles, squash and maize.
The soldier/explorer cursed Fray Marcos de Niza, who told Coro
nado that he personally had seen the cities and that they were paved
with gold.
Travelling farther north and east the Spanish explorer found
only strange “hump-backed cows”— the American bison. But the
Spanish had some gold, taken from the Inca and Aztec Indians, but
true to form, enough was never enough.
Coronado returned to Mexico with a heavy heart because he
could not add to the treasures of his beloved Spain, for Spain had
a world to conquer and Christianize, and to do so required war
chests o f gold. But more gold was not immediately forthcoming
and Spain turned its energies elsewhere.
Both metaphorically and literally, the world came to realize
that the quest for gold had its peaks and valleys. The metal could
be found in the high mountains and below sea level. The rumor of
its existence some place, no matter how remote or difficult to get to,
always served to buoy up the already optimistic nature o f its seeker.
Miners were the same everywhere, no matter from which country
they hailed. Essentially, they were a camaraderie o f gamblers and

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