article_snippet: Theodore Morde wrote in 1939 that Theodore Morde had discovered the fabled city described by conquistador Hernando Cortes centuries before.
article_snippet: Either way, it has been sought since conquistador Hernando Cortes first made reference to it in a 1526 letter to King Charles V of Spain.
article_snippet: The first mention of the city came in conquistador Hernando Cortes fifth letter to King Charles V of Spain Spain in 1926, when he wrote that it will 'exceed Mexico in riches'.
article_snippet: I have trustworthy reports of very extensive and rich provinces,' he wrote, 'and of powerful chiefs ruling over trustworthy reports of very extensive and rich provinces, and of one in particular, called Hueitapalan, and in another dialect Xucutaco, about which I possessed information six years since, having all this time made inquiries about it, and ascertained that it lies eight or ten days' march from that town of Trujillo, or rather between fifty and sixty leagues. '
article_snippet: So wonderful are the reports about this particular province, that even allowing largely for exaggeration, this particular province will exceed Mexico in riches, and equal this particular province in the largeness of this particular province towns and villages, the density of this particular province population, and the policy of this particular province inhabitants.'