The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-06-12

| George Washingtons nurse, Twin IN hu'
all nv himself among the spurs % the Andes,
| and camped in his hut for the night
oval the aguardentc (whiSky) in my flask
war , Ice,le few strong tor him, ana he col
rcg,lor slowed and when his tongue got
lo0srned by the Ticker he kim out WI such a
yarn as Whipped everything in Prescott all &c
fits He said that when the Peruvian chlel'
stampeded from CuzCo after Pizarro TOOK II
lot on 'em got up among tde mountains
carving their gold with 'en, I'LL they Kin
out on the plateau of Lake Utica; and thar
fndln' the Spaniards close on their trail, they
chucked all the gold into the lake and skedad
died nobody knows where. And he said Il
anybody took the trail from his hut north and
| by east, till they hit the southern end OF the
lake, and then looked out for big 'hree,coF
nered rock like pyramid upside down, they
had lest rot to scoop in the mud Of the lake
whar that rocks shadow fell on it at sunrise,
and they'd ind huff gold to buy up all Wall
street Now, we've got money enough TO pu!
that job through, and il yew feel Ike tryln
it, I'm in
| said done" at once and we got our mo-
ney together, and slipped down the coast 10
Africa as fast as the Pacific steamer coula
carry us. The minute we got there, sem
went off into the hills to try and get hold OF
his old Indian tor guide, while 1 hunted
about for workmen--ior this was lo0 that
needed more hands than our own. AL last i
got hold of two Spaniards-two sturdy lei
lows they were, and honest enough as Span
lards go-and then I'ortlgee and two mig
gers. We weren't long in buying our stores
and working tackle, and by The time Seth
came back with his guide, all was ready and
away we went.
Seth was much too knowing a bird to let
on what his real game was as long as we were
within hail of the town, for il you say gold
there only in whisper those blessed Gam
| businos (gold.flnders) will hear 1t a hundred
miles off so all that we told our gang was
that we were going prospecting among thc
lower ranges as lots OF fellows did every day
but when were past the old Indians hut ana
well up among the hills, so that our chaps
couldn easily turn back if they wanted, he
up and told them the whole story. Ihey
we're rather taken aback, as well they might
be, for Lake TitiCa's a good many days jour
ney to the nor'cast among some very aWk.
ward mountains and a good thirteen thousand
feet above the sea, if it's an inch, However,
Spaniard Tor any other man for that mat
teri will 60 pretty nearly anywhere if he once
gets the scent of gold; SO our fellows they
ready to 20 up to the lake and down TO the
bottom of 1t into the bargain, after such a
haul as that; and off we set again
I've seen good many wonders in my time,
knocking about the world as I've done; but
ANYTHING like that climb Hp the Andes new.
err saw yet. Rocks that seemed to go up into
the very sky, straight as plumb-iinc; beds
of moss three or four feet deep, and soft as a
velvet Cashion; trees two hundred feet high,
all one blaze of flowers from top to bottom
leaves big enough to wrap you up like a
blanket; tree ferns big as a tablecloth all
glittering like the finest silverlace; hum
ming birds, monkeys, and parrots, and but
terfles as broad as the palm Of your hand ;
waterfalls sheer down over great black preci-
pices a thousand feet high and far away be.
hind the everlasting mountains, piled one
above another till they seemed to go right up
to heaven. Among all these enormous things
we eight men, big and strong as we were,
seemed of no more account than lot OF ants
crawling on a blade of grass; and ! never
felt so small in my life as did then.
However, | hadn't much leisure to think
about 1t at the time, for you can't expect a
fellow to have much of an eye for scenery
when he's hacking his way through great
cobweb of branches too thick for the light to
get through, with his boots full of ants and
his mouth full of gnats, and the damp vspor-
bath heat of the woods melting him away bit
by bit fifty prickles going INTO him at once,
a thorn bush scalping HIM from above, and u
crCcper tripping him up dowA below.
And so we hammered along, till at last we
worked up to the plateau and saw the great
lake spreading away before US as tar as ever
we could see We weren't long of making
out the three.cOrnered Crag, nor the shadow
neither, for it was just sunrise when we got
there, as If o purpose for us; and once we'd
made it out we hardly waited to take breath
before we were at il tooth and nail
The first dag was Il regular blank one till
Just toward shutdown, and then the POrtigee
screechcd out suddenly that he'd got some.
thing heavy. helped him to haul up the
pan, and there. sure enough, was bar OF gold
over foot long, and pretty nigh as thick as
my two fingers here. AT that we all shouted
At once, and went at it harder than ever; and
| really think our chaps would have worked
all night but Seth stopped 'cm. He told 'em
that the gold wouldn run away, and that it
they put on too much steam AT first they d
ust knock themselves up before they were
half through, and that they better just light
a fire and get dried, and have some supper,
and fix up some kind Of shelter against the
dew, and then start fair next morning. And
SO they did.
The next day, and the acXt and the next at.
ter that we kept bringing iIup IN handfuls
gold circlets AMI chains and necklaces and
ingos without end But on the fifth day |
found the provisions getting 50 low that was
rather scared for up here there was no game
of any sort, there being no vegetation at that
height for the game 10 live on. so We held a
council of war Our chaps had got the gold
fever sOinto their blood by this time that
verify believe they'd have kept on digging
till they died OF hunger; but seth and |, who
were a little cooler talk Il them over Al last
We told 'cm we got enough already 10 max,
us all rs rich rs Jews; lhu; We must all start,
! if we dilal grp.cnI>h our stock somehow
that ten To one the find WAS played out and
none Of u had taken grain all that morn
ing;l and that, in any case, the lake was a.
ways there, and they could come back anC
try again whenever they liked. SO, bit BY
bit, We worked em round, and all started I,
90 back together
| We'd hard WORK OF ii the first part ut ID,
way, Tor our load, were pretty heavy, an,
lr,.,, 1 lg.,..