Mexico Missouri message., 1910-05-12

above sea level Two other craters of lesser
height rise one either side of the main crater:
then sheer drop of several thousand feet of sui
phur-coated rock to the highest signs of vegeta.
ZION. Below this the Pacific slopes stretch
beautiful rolling llanos steppes lower and
to"er' on down to the palm-fringed coast line
somewhere on these immense slopes lies the
lost mine Of the Indians, "Tisingal" known to
and worked by the early Spanish settlers who
changed its name to LA Estrella" or Mine of the
Star.
During the year 1S33-34, in going through the
archives at Carriage Costa RIGA, some official doc.
uments pertaining to this mine were found and
permission was obtained from the Costa Rican
government for their publication. Shortly there
after company was formed in Carriage to send
out exploring parties and although considerable
time and money were wasted and several lives
lost in an endeavor to locate this mine no ndica-
lions Of its whereabouts were found.
Reprints of some of the documents referred to
have come into the hands of the writer in which
rs preserved the old style Spanish in which they
were originally written during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. TRANSACTIONS of these pa
peTs have been made and the information con-
'tained therein summarized, to which have been
added data obtained through personal acquaint-
ance with the country described. During last
year an unsuccessful attempt was made by the
writer to ascend the highest crater of the Cbiri.
qui volcano for the purpose of verifying certain
Information purported to have been secured in
the year 1905 from this point and pertaining to
the Tisingal mine. During the dry season of this
year a second attempt will probably be made
Among the documents consulted is one that
literally translated reads as follows:
Within the limits of the department of Chiri-
qui. contiguous to the Republic Of Costa Rica
exist places rich in gold known by the names of
Tisingal. Quebrada Ancha, Quebrada de Orc and
others quite important. The first of these places
was explored some time ago by Spanish colony,
which in the year 1901 founded the city of Con-
'cepcion de la Estrea, near this mine of great
wealth The excessive stinginess of the conquer
ors reduced the Indians of the locality to the con-
dition Of slaves they being forced by the Spanish
to work, mining the gold Of the Tisingal. These
Indians became tired of the excessive work and
bad treatment and became desperate. In the year
1911 they revOlted against their oppressors and
e1teTminated them; but other Spanierds at the
place Of the mutiny again compelled the Indians
70 resume the working of the mine and made
harder for them their state of slavery. This al.
most eliminated the Indians from this stretch OF
country.
~On the twenty-eghth Of September, some
years after these happenings, the Indians re-
turned. and without pity consideration took
the life of every foreigner living in the country;
and not only this, but carrying stones from dis
tant localities they covered up and destroyed all
traces Of the workings Of the Mines and they
also RACED all houses and churches belonging to
the Spaniards The only traces remaining OF
IlaEe ahCleut buildings To-Day are the foundations
~of the church and bell belonging to it.
AT last the news of the new rebellion reached
Carriage in Costa Rica, where immediate prepa-
Eations were made for revenge. 1t is known that
at the beginning of the year 1710 the government
at Carriage sent 200 men by the way of Boruca
and Tuis 70 San Jose Cabecar. a town to the east
about is leagues from Conception. This expedi-
ton took 500 Indians of both sexes prisoners and
reduced them TO a state Of slavery and as such
consigned them to the inhabitants around about
Carriage upon their return to that place. These
prisoners and all other Indians they met along
the way were massacred shortly thereafter.
From that time all Indians living n the
mountains I'm all directions up to distance Of 70
leagues turned bitter enemies of the foreigners
and up to few years ago would have nothing to
do with the white races. Due TO these events all
traces OF the villages Of Turrialba, Tuis, Atrro,
San Jose Cabecar and other places that lay on
the route to Conception de 10 Estrella and Tisin-
1gaI were lost and the trails of communication
With the mines we're covered with brush and
completely destroyed, so that after 40 years In
Carriage no knowledge was 10 be obtained as to
the locality OF the EstFelia and practically no
.Derson living knew or bad seen the mines at