“…the Eldorado Exploring Expedition…sordid buccaneers…To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no moral purpose at the back of it…” (pg. 36-37)
El Dorado, which means “the golden one” in Spanish, is a legendary city gilded in gold that many have sought for hundreds of years. In the 16th century, many explorations of the New World were solely established to discover this mythical, treasured city. During the many attempts of finding El Dorado, hundreds have perished. Conrad characterizes Kurtz with greedy qualities reminiscent of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition as well as the countless other El Dorado bound explorers. Rather than his hunger being bent on gold, though, he is infatuated by ivory. All he cares about is possessing as much, if not all, of the ivory in the vicinity. He even lives up to the latter portion of the quote because he literally "tears" ivory fossils "from the bowels of the land."
"Eldorado, The Mystical Place of Gold and Treasures." Welcome to the website of kaiku. Web. 12 Aug. 2009. http://www.kaiku.com/eldorado.html
Photo Credit: Eldorado. Digital image. Web. 12 Aug. 2009. http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/picture-1-41.png
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