[Footnote 2: The Venetian ambassador, Andrea Navagiero, who
travelled through Spain in 1525, near the period of the
commencement of our narrative, notices the general fever of
emigration. Seville, in particular, the great port of
embarkation, was so stripped of its inhabitants, he says, "that
the city was left almost to the women." Viaggio fatto in Spagna,
(Vinegia, 1563.) fol. 15.]
Yet that the advtenturers were no impostors, but dupes, too easy
dupes of their own credulous fancies, is shown by the extravagant
character of their enterprises; by expeditions in search of the
magical Fountain of Health, of the golden Temple of Doboyba, of
the golden sepulchres of Zenu; for gold was ever floating before
their distempered vision, and the name of Castilla del Oro,
Golden Castile, the most unhealthy and unprofitable region of the
Isthmus, held out a bright promise to the unfortunate settler,
who too frequently, instead of gold, found there only his grave.
In this realm of enchantment, all the accessories served to
maintain the illusion. The simple natives, with their
defenceless bodies and rude weapons were no match for the
European warrior armed to the teeth in mail. The odds were as
great as those found in any legend of chivalry, where the lance
of the good knight overturned hundreds at a touch. The perils
that lay in the discoverer's path, and the sufferings he had to
sustain, were scarcely inferior to those that beset the
knight-errant.
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