The Green Forest tribune., 1912-05-03

I,/ ships sunk In shallow waters
 stie of 1t has ever been recovered; the average
 pIerers to work for few dollars week
 he history of the hundreds of treasures some
 Well known and rich in narrative, Of
 vaguely chroncled, is something of absorb
 st, to the with the true spirit of ad-
 His blood
 1Id and silver produced from the new.
 oYered Western Hemisphere by the early
 .sh and Portuguese adventurers than the world ssad ever known in its history. The Spanish Main eeked with It. The Indians, from Mexico to Peru, s,a0 so much that they had for 1t. Shipload eerS shipload wenfto England, Spain and Portugal. tei and priyateers raided the ports and the gal
 eso'Ternors often cached the treasures of a
 co save them from the raiders; bishops and rests hid the wonderful solid gold altars. raitngs, vessels and so forth, to keep them safe Often the governor slain or captured perhaps removed, and in many the cerics suffered similar fates. Hundreds of millions have been recovered but the sums remaining unfound vast as to be stag gering,
 It is of those unrecoyered or only partially recov- cred hatI write giving all the facts that have been able to ind hoping to start the seekers on to the quests. Some of it seems easily recoverable that could go and almost lay ones hands it; more of 1t would require patient effort, digging, draining diving, searching; still other portions will be found only by the purest chance the clues too vague There Is one astounding store of gold the history of which is clear and definite, and the obstacles toSecovery slight, that will state its claims first. On the Cundinamarca plateau in the Republic of Colombia is little pond quarter Of mile across. In the exact center of this pond supersous Indians dumped gold in fiber bags in such quantities that - on the bottom lie hundreds of millions, perhaps several billion dollars worth One chief dropped ip~9,6o0 pounds in one day to the life of ~-sick daughter and the votiye process went on interruptedly for hundreds of years. It is easy how stupendous the treasure must be and how difficult to estimate accurately.
 The bulk of the definite information concerning the lake comes from the journal of Fray Pedro Simon, Jesuit missionary who dwelt among the oba India 1aly for and witnessed the incident cited.
 At the time of the conquest the lake called Guatavita, "Caretaker of Life" The Indians be- leved that in the lakes and springs dwelt the sub deites and all the tribes in northern South Amer lea believed that in this wonderful little pool, with its clear cold springs and beautiful shores, dwelt the deity, who had power to save and heal. Gold was to be found everywhere Its sole use was for decoration and religious superstftious offerings
 Even today they still hide the secrets of the deposits appearing in the towns with little leaf Baskets the bottoms of which are covered with gold, which they to buy all the print-cIoths, arms, food and baubles that make up their sim pie needs; then they go away to their huts in the mountains. When the Spaniards first came the Indians laughed to find the white men so eager for what they deemed of little value But when they saw the white men killing and tortur- ing their brothers, wives and children they grew silent and ever since have hidden all their knowl- edge of gold among themselves. An Indian who leads the way to an Indian mine signs his own death-warrant.
 Fray Pedro Simons account of the lake says that it of chain; that it was so small that two fiber ropes could be stretched across it, marking it into quarters. They crossed in the exact center. Rafts moored on-shore and the Indians coming from afar laden with gold would heap 1t on these rafts in fiber and skin bags use the ropes to guide the rafts to the cen ter and then throw in the gold old and sacred of the tribe or family reciting invocations to the spirit of the lake,
 What have related has been common property among men interested In treasure-seekng, and parts of the facts have been printed both in Amer lea and England, but this Is the first time that all the knewn facts have been given There is today on the plateau a lake called Guatavita but it does not answer Fray Pedro Simon's description.
 On the 18th of April 1643, there set sail from what is Colon the Spanish galleon Santa Marta. commanded by master-at-arms called Fl Tgre de Joasco, and bearing vice governor Her nando Arojas Alencon with considerable pany of wounded and fever-broken Spanish sol diers. scattering of priests and some business , travellers.
 ! She was headed for Caiiz and Vigo. Her cargo almost entirely gold to the value of about $25,000,000.
 It was not supposed that any one aboard was aware that there anything extraordinarily valuable aboard, except the master, Governor Arojas and two priests of the ships company. Some organized mutiny among the return ing soldiers and sailors and while the ship heavily armed to defend herself against pirates privateers, she very easily taken by her time during the first week out
 Two boatloads of prisoners abandoned on the sandy shore of the pasadoes off the harbor of Kingston, Jamaica but Fl Tigre de Joasco and Governor Arojas were not among them, and somewhere in the chinks of history their fate slipped through and been lost.
 The lmarooned people were very quickly picked