Download or read book The Loss of El Dorado written by V. S. Naipaul and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-12-14 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Trinidad begins with a delusion: the sixteenth century belief that somewhere nearby on the South American mainland lay the fabulous kingdom of El Dorado. Two centuries of multinational intrigue followed, personified in the rivalled quest for the mythical kingdom of gold between the aging conquistador Antonio de Berrio and Sir Walter Ralegh, and culminating in the brutal stewardship of Thomas Picton, the English governor put on trial for the torture of a fourteen-year-old mulatto girl. Relating this labyrinthine story with clarity and novelistic drama, V. S. Naipaul accomplishes an unparalleled feat of historical writing.