Chapter I: Foreword

This book “Yermah the Dorado,” was first published at The Sign of the Lark, San Francisco, in 1897. The issue was limited to five hundred copies, mostly subscribed for by personal friends of mine. The notes, manuscript and plates were all lost in the fire of 1906.

The date of publication is of the utmost importance because the Llama City, Tlamco, the scene of this romance, was located in Golden Gate Park, where it was destroyed by earthquake, in the long ago.

Since the actual occurrence of 1906, the original story has been slightly revised, but not a line of the description of the earthquake has been changed, nor an incident added. Whoever lived through those days, as I did, will not need to be told why. The use of aeroplanes and wireless telegraphy, with the recent visit of a huge comet are additional reasons impelling me to reprint what is very like a pre-vision of things to be.

To me Golden Gate Park is a hallowed spot. As a place of refuge I saw an ephemeral city reared in a night of stress and misery. The beauty of a rebuilt modern metropolis will but serve to recall the vanished glory of the dream city ruled by the man who was the real El Dorado.

FRONA EUNICE WAIT COLBURN.

TO GOLDEN GATE PARK

Where once the Wisdom-City’s temples rose
Within her “Gates of Gold,” our latter day
This noble pleasure ground but loves, and knows,
Nor guesses where the fanes of Tlamco lay;
Yet who shall say what spell that vanished race
Bequeathed forever to this mystic place?

For through this realm enchanted, wanderers stroll—
Or from the Seven Seas, or dwellers near—
And cares forget, while from each weary soul
Life’s heavy burden slips—till peace reigns here
Where blue sky arches over flower and palm,
And west winds whispering, breathe a healing balm.

Here creep the old and sad, so long denied
The welcoming smile these sunny spaces hold;
Fond lovers weave their golden dreams beside
Gay, laughing children counting poppy gold;
To all the Park brings rest, and sweet relief
From work or pain, or haunting wraiths of grief.
—_Ella M. Sexton._

YERMAH, THE DORADO
THE STORY OF A LOST RACE