The Hickman courier., 1872-11-09
Gold Island.

There is another gold speculation
in the wind which is expected to
realize SIS, 100000 at a very small
cost in very few years. This is to
be done by stock company with
capital of $2,5G0,000. Fourteen
miles of the coast of Venezuela, lat
itude II deg. % min. 30 sec. north,
longitude 20 deg. IL min. west, lies
the island of Aruba-thirty miles
long and ten miles wide, and rocky,
barren, and desolate. This insight
IL blotch on the face of the blue sea
is said to be an island of gold, richer
in the precious metal than all the
ancient and modern gold fields put
together.
We, however, advise nobody who
is not stockholder to go there, for
there are no claims to be pre-empt-
ed or bought. The whole business
IS snugly secured by a rich and pow
eriul company organized In London
as The Aruba Island Gold Mining
Company, which proposes to ship
the island piecemeal to Swansea,
Wales, where extensive gold works
are being erected, and there the
$75, ,000,0 900 are to be extracted. Tue
story of the recent discovery and
tests OF this gold island is interest
ing.
Three years ago two American
gentlemen visited the Imperial
Museum at Leyden, and saw some
very itch specimens of goid-bearing
quartz They learned that 1t came
from the island of Aruba. They re-
turned to this country, and engaged
an engineer to make survey of the
island and ascertain the facts relative
10 its gold fields. The survey was
critically made, and nearly three
hundred leads, rich and almost be-
yond computation, were discovered.
1t was further ascertained that the
kingdom of Holland had leastd the
island for % years to a Spaniard for
about $4,000 per annum. and that
the lease had yet 81 years TO run.
The unsuspect'ng Spaniard was
hunted down, and he gladly dispOs-
ed of his 2I years lease for less than
$500 per annum premium. The
purchasers of the lease, not quite sat
isfeld with his bargain, went to the
Ddtch capital and had the lease ex
tended fourteen years, receiving the
royal patent therefor.
New York was to become the gold
centre of the world under the Amer
lean management of tho island of
Aruba 4 quartz mill was erected
at Greenville, \. J., on the Norris
and Essex Canal. and 500 tons of
Aruba quartz were soon placed in
treatment. 1t yielded $50 to the
ton, and it was calculated that $50
more to the ton remained, winch the /.
quartz mill, with the present appli-
ances, could not develop.
The American company could not (
raise the capital they required to I
carry on such extensive gold mining
as contemplated, and appealed to +
the capitalists of England In this T
they are said to have been success !
full, but the gold centre was necessa- I
rily removed from New York to .
Swansea, Wales. So we shall lose !
the geeat glory and large part OF the .
great wealth of Aruba Island.
Labor on tie island of Aruba Is /.
fixed at 80 cents per day, and it is
claimed that the cost of mining the
quartz rock, including the crushing,
will not exceed So per ton, while the
very-lowest grade Will yield $50 per
ton, and the higher grades will run
beyond $500 to the ton The seams
of quartz are apparently inexhausti-
bic, while surface digging and gulch
deposits promise an immense yield.
It is possible that this may be an
other South Sea speculation. There
appears to be but little doubt that
there is gold in this otherwise barren
island of the Caribbean Sea, but its
working may be found to be i'm
practicable, or it turn out an Eldor-
ado