St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-08-05
Origin Of a Fortune.
[Original.1


soon as the war was ended be resigned
his commission and engaged In min
Ing. becoming immensely rich. His
fortune was left to my father and Mt
my fathers death to me when | should
come of age My father left a letter
for me. stating that would find In
certain secret place information that
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 found young Mexican, or,
rather. Aztec. who was in frightfu
condition He looked up at me pitt
fully with his mild Aztec eyes. remind
Ing me of pictures had seen of the
emperor of Montezuma. | called some
men with a stretcher and had him re.
moved to field hospital. where be re.
ceiyed 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 ineal 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 TIL
peace had been declared Then
opened II and took out n small piece
of prepared skin. on which was writ
ten something In the ancient Aztec
With 1t was some writing in Spanish
on paper. which proved to be trans
aton Of the Aztec. knew enough
Spanish to decipher It, 1t was dated
18th Of August. 1921. and read
"Our city is about to fall into the hands
of the spaniards l. Guatemotzn. emper-
or, have buried what is left Of our treas
ure under the northwest corner OF the
Teocalu.
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-
dral which partly occupies the area on
which the Teocalli or pyramid sup
porting the sacriicial stone formerly
rested.
when the City OF Mexico fell into
the hands OF the Spaniards they tor
tured GuatemotZln to force him TO tell
what I've 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 III The
secret had died with the last of the line
who gave me the record My own eX-
PLANTATION was that the treasure WIS In
tended to aid in driving ont the hated
Spaniarls If ever the opportunity
should arrive. confess at first | had
no confidence IN finding Il treasure. but
| was natural adventurer and re
solved to investigate.
II found the house mentioned in the
note Of record. which was nothing but
a dingy howell. II happened that the
army had not beer paid for months
and the paymuster had Just given us
all that was due us. My pay was more
than the hut was worth and bought
il. 1t did not require much time for
the family occupying 1t to move. for
they had nothing. AS soon as they
had gone | bought pick and shovel
and the same night went to work. The
city had originally been built on lake.
and almost anywhere one can dig down
through a soft black soil But the
document said the treasure was under
q corner of the sacrifcial pyramid. AT
any rate, found hard job, being
obliged to remove a mass of loose
stone. worked for weeks without
finding anything and was about to give
it up when my pick struck metal. re-
moved the stones partly covering II
and pulled up a gold god.
From this time forward | worked
with encouragement and soon came
upon other articles. My work was
necessarily slow. as was obliged to
remove the stones and earth had ex'
cavated piecemeal Finally | came
upon one immense mass of gold and
iewelry that during three centuries
had almost become welded together
"How | got this treasure out and
disposed of ii without being discovered
would require a great many pages TO
tell. | melted the gold as fast as
took il out, and in this form 1t was
not hard to dispose of The jewels
were more difficult, owing to their cut
ting which would easily be recognized
in Mexico. | sent them to other coun'
tries, and many of them sold for fabu-
lous sums. It was several years be-
tween the discovery of the first and
last article When | was sure there
was nothing more | relaid the moor
of the house. which had taken up
and locked the premises.
'In order to account for my wealth
7 purchased q wornout Mexican mine
and gave out that | was taking out
gold in fabulous quantities. ! had
many offers for this mine, but declined
them all. Finally, when no longer