Case file · Folklore / legend
Antonio de Berrío's search for Manoa
Antonio de Berrío, governor of El Dorado by inheritance, began in 1584 the first of three expeditions down the Orinoco to find a golden city, Manoa, said to lie on a great lake in Guiana.
1584 CE · 8.12, -63.55 · status: legend
The account
Berrío founded San José de Oruña on Trinidad in 1592 as a base. Walter Raleigh captured him there in 1595 and took his information for his own expedition.
The sceptical view
The Manoa story combined real Indigenous trade in gold ornaments with European hopes; none of Berrío's expeditions found it.