The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-09
LURE OF GOLD THAT
FASCINATES MEN
Hunting for Treasures in the
Strange Corners of World
SOME WIERD EXPEDITIONS
Gold, Silver and Jewels Said to Be
at Bottom of Lake In Colombia.
Where Great Riches
Are Hidden.
SOME WlERD EXPEDITIONS

mond seeking expedition. The circum-
stance reminds one that during the last
few years there have been constantly re-
curing outbreaks of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
the epidemic is at this moment more viru-
lent than ever.
The hidden treasures of gold and silver.
of jewelry. diamonds and precious stones
for which periodical search is made in
various parts of the world are computed
to be worth several hundred million
pounds sterling. says the London Hx-
press. A bare statement of these various
Bldorados is calculated to make the eyes
of the avaricious Link.
At the bottom OF the Lake of Guatavita.
In Colombia. there lies, it is said, treasure
in gold, silver and jewels to the value OF
at least G100OO0,000, Pirates loot worth
many millions is buried on Cocos Island In
the Pacific. Spanish gold to the tune of
5000, coo reposes in the Armada galleon
Admiral of Florence, which was sunk in
Tobernory Bay, of the Island of Null.
Spanish vessels are lying at the bottom
of Vigo Bay laden with e2sO0O.0Oo in gold.
silver and precious stones
Six million pounds worth Of the buried
treasure of the Incas'' has yet to be un-
earthed in Bolivia. Untold wealth lies in
the bed of Father Tiber, into whose bosom
the Romans cast their priceless possess
slons. The ancient regalia of England,
many Norman jewels, the crown of King
Alfred and other valuables are buried in
the Wash.
Pirate boards estimated at s30,0oo,0OO are
hidden in the Black River mountain.
Nautilus on the coast of St John $,
Cape Colony, lies the wrecked East India
man GrosVenor, bulging with G1.0O0,0oO in
specie. A British man of war, the Black
Prince, sunk by Russian gunfire at Sc
yastopoI, has a cargo of over e6O0,O00 In
gold and valuables.
Treasure on an Island.
Jewels and gold worth million pounos
are tantalizingly hidden on the Mediter-
ranean island of Alboran. Stores of gold
and precious stones are believed to eX-
ist in certain GASES of the Libyan Desert
The i'll gotten hoard of Captain Melville,
a famous bushranger, who robbed hun
dreds of gold dggers between Melbourne
and Ballarat, lies carefully concealed in
the Australian BUSH
Numerous expeditions have been and
are still being despatched in search of
been fitted out for Cocos Island alone.
But success is long in coming. 1t WAS
reported two years ago that a party OF
British and American engineers had re-
covered $23. 100000 of the Incas" long lost
gold, but surprisingly little has since
been heard of the yarn. The probability
is that the shades of the Incas are still
successfully guarding their own. The
people over whom the Incas ruled were
wonderful medieval race of white COM
plexioned Indians, whose amazing wealth
their palaces blazed with gold and prec-
ious stones-was hidden in caves, sunk in
river beds and buried deep in the earth.
Romantic almost beyond belief is the
story of the Cocos Island treasure, for
which unceasng search Is being made
One portion of the hoard was deposited
about 1921 by British pirate vessel. 1t
was hidden by sinking in gravel and tun-
nelling In rock. The pirate leaders suf-
fered capital punishment, and all evidence
of the whereabouts of the spoil vanished.
Another portion consisted of the treasures
of an entire Peruvian town entrusted to
a British bark during revolution. The
crew of the bark betrayed their trust. es-
capped with the valuables and buried them
on Cocos Island.
The pirate treasure consisted of bullion
to the extent of hundreds of thousands of
pounds precious stones to an enormous
amount hundreds of bars of pure gold,
273 gold hilted swords studded with
precious stones and chests filled with gold
and silver sacramental vessels ornaments
richly incrusted with precious stones. gold
and silver ingots and chests of bullion
from the state treasury.
Chart Handed Down.
A chart of the island locating the latter
hoard has been handed down-a chart for
all the world like the one which forms
f,f,, fro m
sons great romance. Relying on this and
other documentary evidence, at least
eighteen search parties have been engaged
during the last seventy years in digging
and blasting about the island, sometimes
with bioodshed and the throwing over
board of rival searchers.
Hardly less romantic Is the search for
the treasure ship of the "Invincible Ar
mada'' which is now proceeding off the
Isle of Null. 1t is conclusively proved,
from the archives of Inverary Castle that
the ship, with its millions of bullion, really
sank at the spot indicated; indeed relics Of
value have already been saved from her
hulk. An idea of the wealth she carries
may be gathered from the fact that her
admiral sybarite of renown, never ate
and drank except from silver plates and
golden goblets and that when she was
wrecked she bore many Catholic priests,
with all their holy treasures, silver cruel
fixes and sacramenta1 vessels.
1t is equally certain that the Spanish
galleons which were scuttled in Vigo Bay
in 1902 to avoid capture by the British
are still laden with the s2s.0Oo00o worth
of gold, silver and precious stones, the
harvest of four years looting in Mexico.
Fearful and wonderful salvage apparatus
has been invented and tried by explorers,
assisted by the Spanish government. but
SO far without avail. Similarly fruitless
have been the attempts to locate the
wreck of the Black Prince
But the greatest treasure in history Is
that which city syndicate is now seek
ing In the volcano lake Of Guatavita, Co
lombia. This sacred lake of the Chibichas
was the home of the Chibichas' deity, the
Sacred Man, and into it, with the object
of propitiating the deity, thousands OF pill
grims cast every imaginable kind OF
treasure. The facts are authentic, and
any day the city syndicate may light upon
a little matter of f100,00O000.
The Romans, after the manner OF the
Chibichas, cast their valuables to the god
which they believed to live beneath the
Theirs waters, and these the river still
cherishes.
FOR RENT.
The second and third floor
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