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19th Century Map Shows a Fictional Country Created by a Con Man
In the 19th century, Scottish scammer Gregor MacGregor made a fortune selling land in Poyais.
He wound up fighting as a mercenary for Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan statesman who earned the nickname “ El Libertador ” for wresting several South American nations from Spanish control. After MacGregor left his wife and took up with Josefa Antonia Andrea Aristeguieta y Lovera, Bolívar’s famously beautiful cousin, he invaded Florida, which was Spanish territory at the time. He raved about the timber-rich forests, a local Indigenous population that for some reason loved British colonizers, and clean streams that glittered with real lumps of gold.
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