The age-herald., 1900-09-24
KING sOLOMoN'S MINES
Speculation as to Their Discovery and
 Richness

From the London Mail.
 This is story quite on the modern lit- srary lines. for it ends with a note of Interrogation.
 1t begins with the scene of pr. Carl Peters, the German explorer rummaging about in old German castle few years back.
 In this ancient Teutonic schloss pr. Peters came upon a musty volume. to- gether with a quaint old map, published In France in 1l19 or thereabout
 This work and map according to one of Dr. Carl Peters associates, dealt with the doings of the Portuguese 200 years earlier, In the country bordering on the Zambesi, and are to form the key to the whereabouts of gold mines in the heart of Africa The course of the Zambesi was shown on the map roughly, but accurately, and on the south bank of the river appeared Mount Fura. Now, concerning Mount Fura a thirst for science and thirst Tor gold had already bred in the good doctor certain suspicious.
 So he set to work, it is recorded, in syste- matic fashion to get all the works he could find on the subject. He is credited with possessing a wonderful memory, and Of being capable of recollecting minute de- tails for years afterward Some of the old writings thus hunted up went back to the seventeenth century, and for two years was the trail followed up says an admir- Ing chronicler, through the dim and dust strewn realms of centuries-old bookland.
 The recent works were studied, too, and at the end of two years, in July, 1S9S the German traveller promoted in London a company-the Dr. Carl Peters Estates and Exploration Company, limited-for the pur- pose of purchasing properties and rights which had been acquired by him in south eastern and central Africa, and for the conduct by Dr. Peters of well-equipped and carefully selected expedition to the district where he hoped to discover Mount Fura, and to test his surmises about that mysterious locality.
 The vendors took 75,000 pound shares in that payment, and the expenses of this ex- petition and sufficient working capital would be provided said the prospectus, by the issue of 25,000 shares.
 Well, the expedition, with Dr. Peters at It's head, and the clues afforded by the old writings and the old map in constant use duly discovered the mountain of Fura by the middle of 1899, and Dr. Peters was con- vInced his cherished hopes were well founded. Those hopes were nothing more nor less than that Fura was Ophid, the Biblical land of gold, the source of Solo, mons fabulous riches.
 Fura, the good doctor contended, was the native corruption of the word Afur by which name the Arabs of the sixteenth century knew the district. Afur was the
 
 Hebrew name Ophir. As Dr. Peters alter ward assured a representative of Reuters Agency, for the information of the world at large, he had ample proof that the Fura which his expedition had discovered and ex- plored in the summer of 1899 was the Ophir Of the Old Testament-the Ophir whose in- caculable wealth is referred to in the first Book Of Kings, in both Books of Chroni- cles, in Job, in the Paslms and in Isaiah.
 chief, the doctor said, gave him valua- ble information regarding the position of ancient ruins and workings, which he at ence investigated. Going to the suot indi- sated he found ancient ruins of undoubted Semitic type. Fura itself he found to possess forma tion of quartzitic slate and running. The ancient workings which he found were not only surface workers but there were also, he declared, shafts and roads hewn into the rock.
 How the shareholders must have palpi- tated when they read, in a report Dr. Pe- ters presented to the directors, that when the Portuguese arrived in East Africa about the year 1500 the Arabs called the district Afur, and told the Portuguese it was the Ophir of the Old Testament For glance at l. Chronicles, Chapter xxix, verse 4, would show them that David gave to overlay the walls of the temple 5000 talents of the gold of Ophir, and upon the authority Of F. W. Madden, M. E. A S., author of History of Jewish Coinage etc, they would know that a talent of gold was worth 6,000 pounds
 Here. then, was 1S,000,000 pounds of gold from Ophir, and the inexhaustible nature of the supply would be apparent when they pursued their Biblical researches to find in l. Kings, chapter ix verse 2S, that there was brought from Ophir to Solomon 20 talents of gold, equal to a modern value of 252O,0O0 pounds and that, again. in H. Chronicles. chapter viii, verse ls mention is made of another dip by Solomon into the Ophir mines to the extent of 450 talents of gold, or 2,7O0.000 pounds.
 But by now cold shivers of doubt may have succeeded to the first warm thrills; for year has passed since the wonderful discovery was made, and two years since the company was formed and no millions of pounds, nor hundreds, nor tens, nor even units have yet come the way of the ex. pectant shareholders.
 But instead come unexpected whispers that what was purported to be King Solo, mons mines are not works of ordinary collection of sand and rock hills.
 Is it veritably the Land of Ophir, and if go, have David and Solomon left much gold for the shareholders in pr. Peters Estates and Exploration Company