Evening star., 1898-08-20

secured several dollars worth in this way
ihyseif, by washing the sands in shallow
wooden dish, whitfield out of a nine sIah
ana which was loaned me by an accommo-
dating negro
Golden Flakes Easily Found.
Ahe spaniards found great deal of gold
IN the river sands, well as in pockets.
put nearly all were mere surface indica-
tohs, and they never even touched the real,
sources of the treasure. As in the Yukon
ana klondike districts today. what was
found was only the washinss from, tho
sIeat sold sources in the heart of the hills
ana mountains. Humboldt himself do
ciared that the Spaniards though tba,, lh
talhed What seemed to them yasr ,raas
Ure of gold, from the West Indies and
Mexico, South America and the SDanisT
nam, and their great galleous went howe
iaueh with nuggets and dust from MANY
HiEes-yet the fountain-head Was never
,aFp5d. he Hkened their surface accumu-
IatioHs 10 the scattered flakes of p srow
STORM and what remained to the vast suoy,
iieius banked against the mountain sides
without fatiguing my reader with de.
ans i may mention that 1 myself found
rich INDICATIONS of vast deposits and 7
aot putclaSed from one Of the natives mug
SCI "eiSElhs haif an ounce-a nugget Of
pure gold, that will assay higher ttan INV
YET brought from the klondke This ma
1--WE had double handful of nuggets tha
ARREST ta OF which weighed five ounces and
thoush ne would not sell, he allowed me 10
make trdcings of the largest four
les mere, on or near the spot where the
~ ~, % hiiltary post was established in Santo
L. iDolLlRgo, Tour centuries ago. gold is found
IN paying quantities by the natives with
thelr primitive appliances. l found an old
na1-lndian goldsmith, living in a thatcbed
nut, with a bench and stool as it's onI,,
tol lhitufe Who had accumulated quite n
oitune oy purchasing the gold fakes and
DUST brought him by his neighbor Tbav
are SO lmprovident that they, whan they
need anything, merely run down to tha
river river wash out gold enough to last them a
ShopkeeperS own price ~
lnsy ana their ancestors have been do
ing TINS for centuries. They have but otbar
scaht means of livelihood. And L thought,
hand-to-mouth mode of life: What vyonrd
this region become If it could be exn,o,ted
by some live Americans?
Fortress Filled With Gold.
1his expedition of Columbus was the
hrst probably in which horses were used
and the natives fell down before them in
terror. But when they saw that all the
strangers wanted was gold they took them
to the sources of their supplies. Gold was
SO abundant there that Columbus erected a
fortress, which he called Santo Tomas de
fanico, few stones being all that is left
OF 1t, on the bank of a clear-running stream
hal1-hldden IN rose apple trees. When COM
pieted TINS fortress was placed in charge of
noble Catalonian, Pedro Margarite. a
knight of the Order of Santiago, one of the
bravest in the Spanish army After the
departure of Columbus the fort was in
vested by the brave Caonabo, cacjuue of
the mountain Indians, and but for the
timely arrival of AlonZo de Ojeda with five
hundred men, Margarite and his garrison
would have been massacred.
Santo Tomas is in the region of mines
which indicates a high elevation. in an is
land SO far south as Santo Domingo and
the air Is sweet and pure. 1t is an ideal
location for settlement. or for mining ex-
cept that it is far away from all routes of
travel, the nearest town to it being that of
Santiago, on the banks of the Yaoui The
people here live most wretchedly, even
though surrounded by a tropical eXuber-
ance of vegetation. AS 1 have said they
mainly depend upon the gold which they
wash out of the streams for their daily
needs, and they seem to have difficulty in
summoning strength enough even for that
They live in little huts in the fields frail
shelters, open at both ends and thatched
with layers of palm leaves. From the raft
ers they swing their hammocks of native
grasses, and in them they pass most of the
time, indolently swinging to and fro Their
fields and gardens produce, almost spou-
taneously, tobacco. pumpkins. bananas
plantains, ETC., and all varieties of tropical
fruits grow in half-wild state. And yet
SO poverty stricken are they that 1 have
been followed for miles, over the horrible
trails of that interior country of Santo
Domingo, by half-naked children begging
for a penny or two with which to buy
bread
Sands of Gold Still There.
Such is the country in which the first
gold was found in America four hundred
years ago. 1 have said that different con-
ditions would prevail if this land were a
possession Of the United States, but on Sec
ond thought 1 am reminded that we have
recently come into ownership of another
island very similar in our acquisition of
Puerto Rico. Again. the incidents attend
ant upon the finding of gold for the first
time in the latter island were similar to
those in Santo Domingo; and, further, the
same conditions prevail in both islands
The precious metal is found in the sands of
rivers. 1t was very abundant in Ponce de
Leon's time and still is found. but in less
er quantity. The mineral resources of
Puerto Rico have not been fully exploited
II we may judge by the merely superficial
investigations that have been made In the