Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-07-17
INSECTS GUARD GOLD
APLACER DlGGINGS MONOPOLIzED BY
MOSQUITOES.

A Plague That Drives the Workers Away
From the Rich Sand of South Ameri-
can River-Natives Who Can Stand the
Tortures Are Too Lazy to Work.
Gold in plenty may be found in the
sands of the Volador river, a stream of
moderate volume that comes tumbling
from the snow line from the Sierra de
St Martha, in South America, but
though the lowland region and the river
bed where the precious metal abounds
in fabulous quantities are easily accessi-
BILE the mosquitoes are so thick and ter
rible there that all attempts to rifle the
sands of their gold have so far failed.
Elisee Reclus, the celebrated French
geographer, was the first to explore the
plain about the Volador's mouth. 1t
seemed like an earthly paradise at first,
and the stinging insects were no more
numerous than one might have expect
ed. But as the rainy season came on and
the air grew hot and humid the mos
quitoes appeared in incredible swarms.
M. Reclus had thought of establishing
an agricultural colony in the fertile
lowlands, but found the plague of in
sects so unbearable that he was forced
to beat retreat and abandon his project.
He was the discoverer of this wonder
full stream, whose waters sweep over
sands that are literally golden. He told
the news to the French vice consul at
Rio Hacha, and this official obtained
the concession of this Eldorado. The
dangers he was to encounter he knew
perfectly we'll He took with him when
he set out an ingeniously constructed
gauze tent of large dimensions. For two
days he tried to live under its shelter
and watch the operations of his work.
men, who toiled in the sitting heat,
clothed in thick garments and protected
by heavy boots, gloves and wells. At the
end of the second day, however, both
employer and employees with one accord
gave up the struggle and retreated.
The next to try to wiring fortune from
these auriferous sands was an Italian,
who obtained permission from the vice
consul referred to above. The Italian
laughed at the idea of mosquitoes driv-
ing any one away from place where
gold could be picked up almost by the
handful He started out with a party of
six, who shared with him his belief, and
so they took along no special protection
against the insects. They endured for
less than half an hour the awful torture
and then fled. They found their way
back to Rio Hacha with difficulty, for
the eyes of five were SO badly swollen
that they were blind. The sixth's face
was a sight to behold, and he had to
pick out the pathway with the aid of
one eye, which the mosquitoes had not
entirely closed.
Yet there are human beings who can
venture with impunity into this hell
whose guardian demons are mosquitoes,
and these are some of the savage natives
sleeps the river comes tumbling down.
These savages, who are mosquito proof,
are rendered so by their bodies being
covered with the scales of that awful
disease, leprosy. Strange to say, the
mosquitoes will not touch them. But
neither gold nor the gauds of civiliza-
tion will tempt them to labor, and there
is no human power apparently which
will drag them ON from their rude caves
on the mountain side and make them
labor for the white men
1t is an old and true saying that one
might as well try to get along without
furs in the arctic regions as without
mosquito nets in the tropics. Mosquito
nets seem to have been of little avail,
however, in the instances related. The
insects are said to have been both un-
usually large and unusually venomous,
and they came in such myriads that they
had the appearance of a mist hanging
over the waters of the river. The intense
pain and action of the poison on the sys-
tenn speedily drive the strongest mad.
One of the favorite tortures among
the natives of the region about the val
ley of the Volador is to strip their vic
tim and bind him naked to stake In.
moment his body will be literally COW
cred with mosquitoes, and in half
hours time it will be enormously swell
ed. The torture is indescribable. New
York World.