Cities of Gold: Legendary Kingdoms, Quixotic Quests, and Fantastic New World Wealth

by Bill Yenne

A History of Exploration for Real and Mythical Treasures in the Americas For half a millennium, stories of vast treasures—El Dorado, Manoa, the Seven Cities of Cibola, the Lost Dutchman Mine—have been part of the lore of the Americas. Long before the Europeans set foot in the New World, myths and rumors of fabulous wealth in distant lands, such as the kingdom of Prester John, were told and retold so often that they were assumed to be true. When Spanish explorers first made contact with the Aztec and Inca civilizations, they found cultures that were literally dripping with gold. This evidence made it easy to believe the native stories of even greater wealth just beyond the horizon. In these uncharted lands, dreamers sought their Francisco de Coronado ranged over the North American plains in search of the elusive Quivira; Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the Incan conqueror, and Lope Aguirre, the “Wrath of God,” were both part of ill-fated expeditions in search of El Dorado; and Leonard Clark walked out of the Amazon after World War II with gold and claimed he had found that fabled kingdom.

In Cities of Legendary Kingdoms, Quixotic Quests, and Fantastic New World Wealth , Bill Yenne takes the reader from the rainforests and mountains of Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, and Guiana to the deserts and peaks of Mexico and the United States to tell the extraordinary, and often brutal story of how the search for mysterious New World riches fueled the exploration of an unknown hemisphere for hundreds of years. Even without finding the places they sought, during Spain’s “Siglo de Oro” in the sixteenth century, the Spanish plundered and mined thousands of tons of New World gold and silver and shipped it home where the reserves alone reached a staggering estimate of two trillion dollars. And it was not just the Spanish who were obsessed with Sir Walter Raleigh made two government-backed voyages in search of Manoa, a golden city he was convinced was deep in Guiana. Discussing the many expeditions to find New World wealth and lost cities over a 500-year timeline, the author includes stories of lesser-known explorers and soldiers of fortune and their successes and failures. As he demonstrates, the desire for adventure and the insatiable lust for treasure motivated men and women in the past and continues to captivate fortune hunters today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 2011

About the author

Bill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics. He has also been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars.

The New Yorker wrote of Sitting Bull, his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.

Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II.

Recently, his book Convair Deltas was named as Book of the Month by Air Classics, while his book Tommy Gun was named Pick of the Month by Shooting Illustrated.

His book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint was listed among the top business books of the year by Cond Nast Portfolio Magazine, which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."

Yenne's Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."

The Wall Street Journal wrote, when reviewing his Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West, that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com

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Reviews

[James Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could drag at times, especially when the author was discussing the expeditions in the American Southwest. I suppose it is logical in that most of his readers are bound to be Americans, but many of the Spanish expeditions covered the same ground and visited the same places, so it got repetitive.

Apart from that, this was a delight to read. Yenne covers all the legendary cities from Cibola to El Dorado to Paititi and Manoa. All of it is absolutely fascinating, and it is incredible that these legends were consistently fed by Natives spinning yarns.

It's interesting to speculate why the Natives told the Europeans so many tall tales, but it goes far to explain why the European explorers were so credulous. The Natives, after all, told them the cities were real and often told them that they had been there. On the face of it, there was little reason to doubt.

They were all hoodwinked, as we now know. The Natives informed the Europeans of things that could not be true, and in retrospect we often think that the illusory nature of these stories ought to have been obvious.

But Yenne highlights another support for them, the incredible wealth that the Conquistadors actually *did* find in Peru and Mexico.

The last chapters of the book describe more modern expeditions, such as Hiram Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu, the discovery of ancient Incan mummies and artifacts in the last few decades, and the growing interest in the Moche civilisation that predated the Inca.

It also includes the very sad story of Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in the Amazon looking for what he called 'the Lost City of Z.' Fawcett was convinced that there were large conurbations in the Amazon, and though he became increasingly unhinged and though his colleagues considered his idea preposterous, the greatest tragedy is that he was eventually proven right.

The archaeologist Micheal Heckenberger discovered a number of sites that must have been ancient cities, in the area where Fawcett was sure they existed.

For anybody who loves myths and legends, who loves archaeology, who loves the Indiana Jones films, you will enjoy this book.

[Lauren Hiebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a survey about the legends of treasure to be found in the Americas and the expeditions to find them. The author explains how and where these legends/myths originated (several in Quito, Ecuador) that spurred explorations throughout the Americas. The book doesn’t really go into depth regarding the explorers and struggles and adventures they faced probably since many died on these trips, kept poor records, and eventually became part of the legends themselves. Examples of legends are: El Dorado, Ciudad de los Cesares, Potosi Mountain of Silver (which actually did exist!), Seven Cities of Cibola, and Quivira. Yenne also explains the influence that gold and silver sent to Spain had, both good and bad. The gold financed and influenced artists, architecture and literature but had a negative side as well. Gold from the New World depressed the value of gold and silver and led to Spain importing what they needed with gold and silver coins ending up in the exporting countries of France, England and Holland. With the California Gold Rush of 1849 there was a renewed effort to find the mythical “mother lode”. This spurred a revival of the old El Dorado legend in the American Southwest which includes the legends of the “Lost Dutchman Mine” and the “Lost Adams Diggings.” The author makes the claim that explorations by archeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries were actually spurred by legends of treasure. He includes John Bighman’s discovery of Machu Picchu as an example. An interesting read.