Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-11-08
ORGANIZED rHiEvERY.
4 Peruvian Company Whose Object Il the
Plund4rtng Of the Dead.

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Plund6rin< Of the Dead.
A limited liability company has been
formed at Mellendo. with a capital Of
$40, 900. 1t is called the Compana
Anonima Exploradora de.Las Huscas
del Inca, and its business is to be tile
searching of the old burial grounds of
the Peruvian Incas. for buried treasure
in money Or other valuables. 1t has
received a concession from the Peru
Wan authorities, and proposes to 60 at
its work in a systematic business-like
fashion. The field OF the company has
been pretty we'll worked over already
by the horde of hap-hazard plumber
ers from all parts OF the world. who
have focked to Peru from the times of
Pizarro till the present day. but there
are yet some very substantial legends
of buried wealth that has not yet been
discovered. Under the old Castle of
CuzcO. for instance. Felipe de Pomanes
tells that there is a vault containing
figures of all the Incas wrought in
fine gold, and that in his own day
they had been seen by certain Dona
Maria de Esquevil. She, the story
goes, was married to a descendant of
the Incas. and reproached him with
being too poor to support her properly.
This, at last. so irritated him that he
led her blindfolded through many
winding passages into a room where
she saw wealth such as no mortal ever
dreamed of, and asked her what she
thought of that for poor mans nest
egg. When Humboldt was exploring
in the neighborhoOd of the Temple of
the Sun, at CuZcO, a poor lad, de-
scendant of the ancient kings. told him
the story, which is still current among
the Indians, that the golden chair of
the Incas was sunk in the baths at Pull
tamarac, and that there are gardens
with artificial trees OF the purest gold
beneath the temple. These gardens,
by the way, are mentioned by the ear
Hest historians OF the Conquest. Hum
bolts lad, when asked why he did not
seek for this hidden treasure, said that
it would do him no good if he found
it, but would only cause his neighbors
to hate and injure him. 1--WE have a
little field he said, ''and good wheat"
That cOntented him. This same spirit
scendants of the ancient race of Peru.
and encourages people like those who
have just put $4,000 into the Society
ExploradOra to hope that only part
of the ancient treasure has ever been
discovered. 1t is alleged that the In
dams can generally get gold when they
actually need it, as at the time of the
rebellion of Pumacaqua, in 1914, when,
according to the story of an old
woman of the Astete family, told
to Mr.. Markham some thirty years
ago, her father having been a col
league of Pumacaqua and present at
the time, Pumacaqua entered the coun-
Gil chambers laden with gold and drip
ping wet. from a journey he had made
up the bed of the Huatanay to cave
filed with golden figures. It was al
ways believed then, according to the
historians, that the rebel chiefs had
some such store to draw upon; and it
is certain that after his final defeat
Pumacaaua offered the thieves pile
of gold bigger than that of Atahualpa,
the ancient chieftain, as a ransom for
his life. The offer was declined, and
he died with the secret unrevealed. at
least to his conquerors.
This Atahualpa, it is a matter of his
tory, when in captivity, offered a room
filled with gold as ransom. but Pizar-
70 demanded double the amount, and
the Incas agreeing, sent messengers all
over the kingdom to bring it. These
messengers, on their way to the cap
ital. heard that Atahualpa had been
strangled, and they threw down their
loads of gold, and, it is said, buried
them somewhere in the mountains of
Llanganati, to the northwest OF Quito,
though no search has ever revealed
the spot. Then there is the golden
chain of the Incas. every link as thick
as mans arm, and its length SO great
that it went twice around the great
square of Huacapata, and which
is said to have been thrown into
the deep lake OF UrcOs to save
it from the Spaniards. There can still
be seen drift which the Spaniards
started through the mountains to drain
the lake, but which was never COM
pleted. While these and similar le-
gends DO very we'll to fire the ardor Of
dubious investors in the stock of the
Society Exploradora, it is highly prob
able that the actual work of the COM
pany will be in the less romantic line
of digging up the bones of ancient in
nabitants for the sake of the trinkets
which may have been buried with
them. This sort of petty thievery is
less attractive to the imagination than
the exhumation of forests of golden
trees and conventions OF golden Incas,
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