Part I, The Prosperteer: Chapters 10 - 13 Summary

O'Meara tells Pitt the story of La Dorada as he knows it. South America abounds with stories of El Dorado and the kings who ruled a wealthy kingdom near the jungles of the Andes. The kings would paint their bodies in gum and cover the sticky skin with gold dust, becoming gold men. They would then throw countless treasures into a lake as an offering to the god. The greatest treasure is the La Dorada, a golden woman whose heart is an enormous ruby and whose head is a magnificent emerald. Only two men are known to have seen her. The first is a monk who escaped the cannibals. The other man, Sigler, is believed to have found and stolen La Dorada and then lost her off a raft in the river, having...