El Dorado Dorado and the initiation rite of the new "zipa", which used to take place in Lake Guatavita. The Spanish captured large amounts of gold from the Muisca, which led them to spread the word that El Dorado was near. After his brother Gonzalo had left for Spain in May 1539, Spanish conquistador Hernán Pérez de Quesada set out a new expedition in September 1540, leaving with 270 Spanish soldiers and countless indigenous porters to explore the Llanos Orientales. One of his main captains on this journey was Baltasar Maldonado. Their expedition was unsuccessful and after reaching Quito, the troops returned
Dorado is treated (like the adjacent asterism Argo Navis) as a feminine proper name of Greek origin ending in -ō (like "Io" or "Callisto" or "Argo"), which have a genitive ending "-ūs". Dorado was one of twelve constellations named by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It appeared: Dorado has been represented historically as a dolphinfish and a swordfish; the latter depiction is inaccurate. It has also been represented as a goldfish. The constellation was also known in the 17th and 18th century as Xiphias. The name "Dorado" ultimately become dominant and was adopted