The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1908-08-19
Origin Of a Fortune


How that wealth was acquired has
not been definitely known. My grand
father when twenty-five years old was
d captain in the American army that
conquered peace with Mexico. Al
so0n as the war was ended he resigned
his commission and engaged tn min,
ing. becoming immensely rich. His
fortune was left to my father and al
my fathers death to me when should
come Of age. My father left letter
for me, stating that would find in q
certain secret place information that
was to transmit to my successors.
am today twenty-one and have sc
cured a document containing the 1nfor
nation This is a 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 I found young Mexican, OF,
rather, Aztec, who was in frightfp@
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 he re
ceived attention. Then secured his
removal to a 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. sYo6
have been very kind to me- he said
and am going to reward you Then
taking a gold locket from his neck, he
gave 1t to me. saying, Your reward Ii
In that Soon after he died.
II did not examine the iocket till
peace had been declared. Then
opened Il and took out 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
lation Of the Aztec, knew enough
Spanish to decipher it. It was dated
| 18th of August, 1921, and read:
1 sour city is about to fall into the hands
sof the Spaniards. I, Guatemotzin emper-
or, have buried what is left Of our treas
"
| Teocall
son the margin We're number Of
notes successfully laid down intended
to fix the spot after the Teocalli had
been torn down by the conquerors, the
4 last naming house beside the cathe'
oral which partly occupies the area On
which the Teocalli or pyramid sup
porting the sacrificial 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. Bu+ why had not any Of the
family dug it up and used It? The
secret had d Ell 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. / confess at first I had
no confidence in finding treasure, but
was natural adventurer and re
solved to Investigate
II 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 bought
it. 1t did not require much time fol-
the family occupying 1t to move, fol-
they had nothing. AS soon as they
had gone I bought pick and shove
and the same night went to work. The
city had originally been built on a lake
and almost anywhere one can dig dowr
through soft black soil. But the
document said the treasure was under
q corner Of the sacrifcial pyramid. Al
any rate, found hard job. being
stone. / worked for weeks withou'
finding anything and was about to give
1t up when my pick struck metal. l re
moved the stones partly covering Il
and pulled up gold god.
"From this time forward l worked
with encouragement and soon san'
upon other articles. My work wa!
necessarily slow, as | was obliged Il
remove the stones and earth I had OK
eavated piecemeal. Finally I cam
upon one immense mass Of gold ant
jewelry that during three centuries
/ had almost become welded together.
How l got this treasure out ant
disposed Of it without being discovered
would require a great many pages =
tell. / melted the gold as fast as
took 1t out, and in this form 1t wa
not hard to dispose of. The jewel
were more difficult, owing to their cut
ting, which would easily be Recognised
In Mexico I sent them to other eoun
tries, and many of them sold for fabu
lous sums. 1t was several years ba
tween the discovery OF the first an,
last article When | was sure ther
was nothing more I relaid the 400
ff fha hn.7e. haI SeI.a1 3,r