The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-01-27
RICH GOLD FIELDS.
The BONANZA Which Chicago SYM
dictate Claim to Have Found

CHICAGO; Jan. 26.--A local paper pub
ilshed this morning the following article:
There has been good deal of suppressed ex-
cltement among mining men in Chicago during the
past few days over reports received from the
agent OF syndicate of Americans searching for
ctar gola IN h1noqraS No. some SIX months ago James Ne
kota, ana three other gentlemen from indiana,
made up pool and sent Rector and another man,
al California prospector, to Honduras to examine
and report upon new placer gold field which, 1t
was alleged, had been found in the southeastern
part OF that little republic. Ever since November
there have been rumors afloat that the alleged
discovery was eongrmed, and that it had proved
to be most important one; but the projectors of
the expedition at home would say nothing about
Now, however, their silence is removed, and
with the arrival Of full particulars both by Scable
and mail, and also the receipt of little bag OF
S22 assay dust, the Importance of the find is no
longer concealed. Already Mulligan, OF Fargo,
Dakota, has gone to Honduras Colonel Donald
Will foll0W IN few weeks, and several 0tner par
ties OF Western men who have been let into the
secret are making ready to set out for the new II
Dorado.
Rector, who has been on the ground since last
summer, and who is known as aprudent and eau
tious man and one possessed of unusually hard
sense writes to his friends here that the discovery
Is likely to prove as important one as any OF the
great placer discoveries in the district of Cali
fornia.
republic of Honduras, and about 160 miles from
the Atlantic coast. The placers are in an ada
cent to the head waters of the Guayope river, one
of the tributary streams of the Rio Patuca, in a
region long known for its mineral resources Rec
tor and his party have explored the stream and its
gravelly bottom for neatly fifty miles, and have
found scores of places where the gravel yields
fromIeight ten to cents to the pan. They have be-
gun regular mining, however, in place where,
after much toll, they succeeded in turning the riv
er from its native bed. Here they dug down and
found bed rock at depth of ten feet In strata OF
clay and gravel They are sluicing out from sew
en- to ten dollars cubic yard, a yield fully equal
TO that of the best placer diggings in California
The bed of the river they have reclaimed covers
many acres in extent, and under the laws OF the
republic they can lay claim to it all. The facill-
ties for placer mining are unsurpassed. The gold
which has been sent up was exhibited to a select
few in Chicago yesterday.
The government of Honduras, it is said, is very
liberal to the miners, let them come from where
they may. 1t requires no citizenship to work min
eral land and there is a very large margin al
lowed as to the extent of the holdings Gold and
silver mining have long been established indus
tries in the region of the Rio Patuca, but the in
ertness of the people, the apparent remoteness of
the country, and the lack of adequate capital has
prevented anything like systematic work.
Mining men from the West who are at present
in Chicago are watching with keen interest de-
velOpmentS in Honduras. If the news which the
Rector party has sent shall be further confirmed
there will no doubt be quite stampede for the
new region. The country is described as health
full entirely free from malaria, and the tempera-
ture in the foot hills of the mountain ranges,
where the places are to be found, is said to be
from 45 degrees to 75 degrees the year round.