For more stories of the clash of civilizations that lead to our modern world, check worldwarzero.substack.com

By the way, on his trip up the Orinoco he passed very close to what would later be one of the world’s foremost gold mines at El Callao (in Venezuela). If the native peoples knew about it, they deliberately sent him in completely the wrong direction.

That expedition lead to the death of his son, the suicide of his second in command and his own eventual beheading.

He learned no lessons from this and after King James I let him out of prison in 1617 he again went looking for El Dorado.

He plundered his way back to England and ended up writing a popular book about the trip just to dispel the notion he had found a bunch of gold but was keeping it hidden.

By this time they were 400 miles into the journey and the rainy season was in full swing. They found some awesome waterfalls and cliffs but no city of gold.

Raleigh made friends with some local denizens (Warao, Pemon) by convincing them he hated the Spanish as much as they did. They, guess what, convinced him there was a rich culture living in the mountains.

A Spanish shadow mission was following them but they blew their cover and Raleigh and his troops were able to surprise attack the Spaniards and capture an Indian who agreed to be their guide.

Sir Walter Raleigh (such a stupid git) set out in 1595 to find El Dorado by going up the Orinoco River. He started with 100 men. His Indian guide Ferdinando vanished (or was captured) in the jungle. One of his crew was eaten by a crocodile.

The myth of El Dorado, a city of gold, in South America was not put to bed until the 19th century when the continent was more conclusively mapped.

Pánfilo de Narváez was tricked by the Tocobagans of Florida to leave them alone and head north to “Apalachee,” a kingdom rich in gold. It didn’t exist, and all but four of his army died in the trek to find it.

The Nauset chief Epenow was abducted from his home in present day Martha’s Vineyard and taken to England. He convinced his captors he could show them the location of a gold mine. When they sailed him back close to his home, he jumped out of the boat and swam to shore.

“Members of Congress thought the bill was so important that they passed the measure even before they established pay for themselves!”

oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lighth...

All in all, one of the strangest dreams I’ve ever had. I woke up anxious thinking I needed to be coming up with more material for Nathan and HBO.

There was a subplot where the townsfolk needed to use up as much electrical power as possible so they put on a Peewee Hockey game. In the middle of shooting we stopped everything so Nathan and I could put our kids to bed.