The blood-stained cruise of the “tyrant Aguirre,” the translated narrative of which, from the text of the old chronicler Simon, is now printed for the first time, is by far the most extraordinary adventure in search of El Dorado on record. The dauntless hardihood of those old Spaniards and Germans, who, undismayed by the reverses and sufferings of numerous predecessors, continued to force their way for hundreds of miles into the forest covered wilds, is sufficiently astonishing; but in this cruise of Aguirre all that is wildest, most romantic, most desperate, most appalling in the annals of Spanish enterprise seems to culminate in one wild orgie of madness and blood.

The history of previous searches after the fabled El Dorado, which led to the expedition of Ursua and Aguirre, truthful and authentic as it is, yet seems fitter for the pages of King Arthur's romance than for a sober narrative of facts. It is necessary, however, that these romantic expeditions should be fresh in the reader's mind, in order to understand the objects and views of the men who followed Aguirre to destruction, and the exact position which his expedition occupies in the history of South American geographical discovery.