The Iuka vidette., 1910-05-12


height rise one either side of the main crater;
then sheer drop of several thousand feet of sui
pnur-coated rock to the highest signs of vegeta-
uon Below this on the Pacific slopes stretch
beautiful rolling llanos steppes, lower and
lower, on down to the palm-frnged 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 1833-34, in going through the
archives at Cartago Costa Rica. some official doc
uments pertaining to this mine were found and
permission obtained from the Costa Rican
government for their publication Shortly there
after company formed in Cartago 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
tons of its whereabouts were found.
Reprints of some of the documents referred to
have come into the hands of the writer. in which
Is preserved the old style Spanish in which they
were originally written during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Translations of these pa
pers have been made and the Information
tanned 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 Chiri
qui volcano for the purpose of verifying certain
information purported to have been secured in
the year lbUo from tn1S point ana pertaining TO
the Tisngal 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 follows:
within the limits of the department of Chiri-
qui, contiguous to the Republic of Costa Rca,
exist places rich in gold known by the names Of
Tisingal. Quebrada Ancha, Quebrada de Orc and
others qnite important. The first of these places
was explored some time ago by a Spanish colony.
which In the year 1901 founded the city of Con-
cepcion de la Estrella, 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
exterminated them but other Spaniards at the
place of the mutiny again compelled the Indians
to 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-eighth of September, some
years after these happenings the Indians
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 razed all houses and churches belonging to
the Spaniards. The only traces remaining of
these ancient buildings today are the foundations
Of the church and bell belonging to it.
AT last the news of the new rebellion reached
Cartago in Costa Rica, where immediate prepa-
rations were made for revenge 1t is known that
at the beginning of the year ITO the government
at Cartago sent 200 by the way of Boruca
and Tuis to San Jose Cabecar, town to the east
about Is leagues from Conception. This exped
tion took 500 Indians Of both sexes prisoners and
reduced them to state Of slavery, and such
consigned them to the Inhabitants around about
Cartago 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 in the
mountains in all directions up to distance of 10
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 Atirro
San Jose cabecar and other places that lay on
the route to Concepcion de la Estrella and Tisin-
gal were lost and the trails of communication
with the mines we're covered with brush and
completely destroyed. so that after 40 years in
Cartago no knowledge was to be obtained as to
the locality OF the Estrella and practically no
person living knew or had seen the mines at