Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-08-19
Origin Of a Fortune.
[Original.l.

lOElEs1UdA.y
I am Of the third generation since
enormous wealth came into our family.
How that wealth was acquired has
not been definitely known. MY grand
father when twenty-five years old was
q captain in the American army that
conquered peace with Mexico. AS
soon as the war was ended he resigned
his commission and engaged in min
Ing. becoming immensely rich. His
fortune was left to my father and at
my fathers death to me when should
come of age. My father left letter
for me. stating that would find in a
certain secret place information that l
was to transmit to my successors.
am today twenty-one and have Sc,
cured document containing the infor-
nation. This Is copy. The original
was written by my grandfather:
"After the battle of Cerro Gordo
went over the field to give aid and
comfort to the wounded Among
them l found young Mexican, or,
rather, Aztec, who was in frightful
fully with his mild Aztec eyes, remind
ing me of pictures had seen of the
emperor of MonteZuma. l called some
men with stretcher and had him re-
moved to field hospital, where he re-
cefved attention. Then secured his
removal to permanent hospital, where
he fingered for awhile and died. Be-
fore his death he told me that he was
the last lineal male descendant of
GuatemotZin, nephew of the Emperor
Montezuma, whom he succeeded You
have been very kind to me- he said.
and am going to reward YOU Then,
taking gold locket from his neck. he
gave it to me, saying. Your reward is
in that Soon after he died.
II did not examine the locket till
peace had been declared. Then
opened it and took out small piece
of prepared skin, on which was writ
ten something in the ancient Aztec.
With it was some writing in Spanish
on paper, which proved to be trans
lation Of the Aztec. l knew enough
18th Of August, 1921, and read:
"Our city is about to fall into the hands
of the Spaniards. l, Guatemotzin, emper-
or, have buried what is left Of our treas
ure under the northwest corner of the
Teocaln.
ION the margin were number of
notes successfully laid down intended
to fix the spot after the Teocalli had
been torn down by the conquerors, the
last naming house beside the cathe-
oral which partly occupies the area on
which the Teocalli, or pyramid sup
porting the sacrifcial stone. formerly
rested.
"When the City of Mexico fell into
the hands of the Spaniards they tor
tured Guatemotzin to force him to tell
what he had done with this treasure,
but did not succeed. Here was what
purported to be his record, handed
down through more than three cen
turtles. But why had not any Of the
family dug it up and used it? The
secret had died with the last of the line,
who gave me the record. My own ex-
PLANTATION was that the treasure was in
tended to aid in driving out the hated
Spaniards If ever the opportunity
should arrive. I confess at first had
no confidence in finding a treasure, but
was natural adventurer and re-
solved to investigate.
81 found the house mentioned in the
note of record, which was nothing but
dingy howell 1t happened that the
army had not been paid for months
and the paymaster had just given us
all that was due us. My pay was more
than the hut was worth, and I bought
it. 1t did not require much time for
the family occupying it to move, for
they had nothing. AS soon as they
had gone l bought pick and shovel
and the same night went t. work. The
city had originally been built on lake.
and almost anywhere one can dig down
through soft black soil. But the
document said the treasure was under
corner of the sacriicial pyramid. At
any rate, l found hard job, being
obliged to remove mass of loose
stone. worked for weeks without
finding anything and was about to give
it up when my pick struck metal. l re-
moved the stones partly covering it
and pulled up gold god
''From this time forward | worked
with encouragement and soon came
upon other articles. My work was
necessarily slow. as l was obliged to
remove the stones and earth I had ex-
cavated piecemeal. Finally l came
upon one immense mass of gold and
jewelry that during three centuries
had almost become welded together.
''How got this treasure out and
disposed of it without being discovered
would require great many pages to
tell. melted the gold as fast as
took 1t out, and in this form it was
not hard to dispose of. The jewels
were more difficult, owing to their cut
ting, which would easily be recognized
IN, Novioo IN