The San Francisco call., 1906-10-30
WILL SEEK BONES
ON MONTEzUMA.
Party of Young Americans
Organized for Recovery
of Monarch's Remains
MAY DISCOVER GOLD

1t is current gossip around San Jose,
Costa Rica, that a party of young
Americans who left here for the Pacific
side of. the republic a few days ago had
in view a treasure search of a very
novel kind.
While it was announced that. they
were going on a prospecting tour, 1t
has in some way leaked out that their
real object was to find the bones of
Montezuma, the last of the Aztecs, and
with these remains a large quantity of
gold and precious stones, in chalices
and images, which were buried with
that ill-fated monarch.
Montezuma, it will be remembered,
was the last of the war gods of Te-
nochtitlan, which was the old name of
Mexico, where he reigned. When Cor
tez advanced he made an easy con-
quest because the natives, never before
having seen a white man, believed the
victorious Spaniard to be Quetzalcoatl,
the sun god. 1t had been prophesied
that Quetzalcoatl would visit his chill
dren, and that he would be known by
his shining hair and white skin.
When the Aztecs became incensed at
the tyranny of Cortez and his follow
ers, and began to doubt their divinity,
there was rebellion. Montezuma was
seized by Cortez and, it is said, forced
to appear upon the piazza OF his house
in an attempt to pacify the people. He
was stoned by his own subjects and
died later from broken heart and the
wounds received.
That. of course, is old history, but
here is the tale handed down by the
descendants of Aztecs IN Costa Rica.
Although Montezuma is supposed to
have been buried in the City of Mex
leo, there always has been considerable
doubt about 1t. The Indians here say
H. .rI Iart hot hi
body was later stolen by his penitent
subjects, who, flying from the barbar-
ism of the Spanish and abandoning
their own high civilization in Mexico,
bore the body of the last of the war
gods with them.
The Aztecs descendants say that
their original country was Costa Rica
brought their dead ruler with as.much
of his treasure as they could save from
the Spaniards. Only the chiefs of the
tribe were privy to the location of the
grave 1t was on a mountain over
looking the Pacific, and this mountain
was held sacred from that day and
constantly guarded by the chiefs.
These. one by one, died and were
buried around the base of this noun
tain. Finally, is the pure Aztec dis
so did the possibility of veri
flying the tale, which, however, has
been handed down persistently as a
legend for hundreds of years.
1t was found upon investigation that
a large number of the Aztec golden
images sold in Cartago and San Jose
had been unearthed from graves upon
a mountain answering the description
OF Montezumas Hill. This mountain.
too, is situated in the locality de-
scribed by the Indians as being the
burial ground, and. as If to climax the
whole business, this mountain has been
called through centuries. and without
any particular white mans reason,
'-Montezuma"
The fact that wrought gold has been
taken from the graves-presumably
those of the chiefs-around the base
of this mountain and that near to it
and running toward the Pacific is q
stone roadway >of undoubted Aztec
rather lends zest to such
an expedition. II not probability to the
whole story.
While the skeleton of Montezuma
would be a prize worth ten times its
weight in gold to any national mu-
scum, it is said that the searchers have !
more in their minds eye-the treasure |
supposed to have been buried with the
last of the Aztec war gods.-New York |
Times