Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1891-08-28

out an expedition and reward the sol
der handsomely for guiding them to
the spot. He agreed, the party start
ed, and after reaching the border of
the desert the gold hunters disappear
ed from human knowledge and were
never afterward heard from. Many
years subsequently an old wagon sur
rounded by the skeletons of several
men and horses, was found on the
desert a long distance from the
travelled road to Fort Yuma, and this
doubtless explained the fate Of the
party
Anotherw witness to the existence of
this elusive mine is a miner who cross
ed the desert twenty years ago or more.
He came from Arizona, and left Yuma
on mule en- route to Los Angeles.
He followed the stage road for many
miles, but finally concluded that he
could lessen the journey by taking
"short cut" Some time after leaving
the road he entered the Bad Lands,
succession of precipitous hills and
canyons that are perplexlng in the
extreme toany, even to those most
accustomed to desert travel. He
finally became bewildered, and espy-
ing group Of three hills that were a
little higher than the surrounding
country, he rode to the summit of one
to get his bearings. While there he
happened toglance at the rock upon
which he was standing, and was
astonished beyond measure to find on
examination that the entire hill was
mass of broken and decomposed
quartz mingled with nuggets of gold.
He gathered up a quantity of the
precious metal, emptied his saddle
bags, and threw away everything that
he could possibly do without. He
then loaded up with all the gold that
he could carry yand struck out for what
appeared to be gap in the noun
tains at some distance. Keeping this
in view, he reached Warmers Pass, and
finally brought up at his destination
Los Angeles.
The trip had been hard one and
the traveller was attacked with Sc
we're Illness in consequence of his pri-
vatlons, which nearly proved fatal. A
physician was called in who nursed
him through his sickness and when
conyalescenee set in he broached the
! cuhioct of cotoponyattoD rr,o col.l1.
bags had been thrown to one side and
had lain unmolested while the owner
was graphing with disease. He called
for them now, and produced the CON
tents which were found TO be the
equivalent of $1,000 To the doctor
the grateful patient gave 81, 600 in mug
gets and told him the story of his won-t
derful discovery. In every detail of
location and character of surround
ings the story coincided with the
other that had been given. The doc
tor prevailed upon his patient to agree
to guide him to the three golden hills,
land preparations were made for the
trip. But just as these had been COM
pleted the discoyerer was taken with
a relapse caused by excitement over
the prospect of fortune before him,
and quickly died. The doctor did not
give up the search, however, but has
frequently sent out parties to scour
the country in the region where the
hills are supposed to be, but the
search has 50 far proved Unsuccessful.
The final link in the chain of evil
dence pointing positively SO the exist
ence Of this wonderful deposit of gold
is as follows; Several years ago there
came to a station on the Southern Pa
ciac road, in the midst of the desert,
"A squaw, worn out with long journey
ing and nearly dead from thirst and
hunger. After resting and being fed
she showed the station keeper a bag
containing several hundred dollars
worth Of nuggets. When asked where
she had obtained them she replied
that she and her buck had been max
ing trip between a couple of Indian
settlements, going through the identi-
cal pass, Warmers, taken by Pegleg
Smith and their successors. Losing
their way they had come to three hills
close together and climbing one OF
them to obtain better view of their
course they found the nuggets. The
man had afterward died Of thirst, but
the squaw had perseyered and finally
reached the railroad, and so saved her
life.
, Some people are constantly troubl-
ed with bolIs-no sooner docs one heal