The Colorado statesman., 1913-06-07
W|LDs OF COLOMBIA
Prospector Says He Has Un-
earthed Spanish Claims.
Also Says That Life Down There Is
Worse Than Dante's lnferno-Digs
UP Relics of Days Long Past
-Quinine Steady Diet.

Col. John S. Wilbur, veteran pros
pector, who has participated-in more
gold rushes than he has years in his
life, and that means a few, for the
grizzled seeker of FL Dorados has seen
the tail lights of a half century go
glimmering down the corridors of
time. arrived in New York the other
day aboard the steamship Santa
Marta. The gold man is back from
the wilds of Columbia where he has
secured claims on the very ground
that brought wealth to the adventur-
ers of Spain as far back as 1850.
For two long. feverish. insect in
tested and nightmarish years Colonel
Wilbur secured the dense jungles of
the South American country before
he made his discovery and found for
tune at his feet. The doughty pros
pector with a belt full of nuggets and
gold dust has now returned to visit
his family in Chicago for two brief
weeks, then to return to the land of
golden promise.
Colonel Wilbur believes that he has
discovered the gold workings that
made Spanish galleons so sought after
by the cutthroat pirates of the olden
days. Colonel Wilbur's claims are To-
Gated along the Atrato river in the
Choco district and near the town Of
Quibdo. The workings are about 300
miles inland and in a country that
would daunt most white men.
1T is placer gold of the finest quail
" hot har 10
veteran prospector. "And my lands
are the same that the early Spaniards
washed for gold. AS matter of fact,
am using the same bitches that were
dug by the dons almost three cen
turies ago. Through these bitches
fetch the water to wash the golden
sands.
81 have dug up many relics of the
Spanish days, such as picks and other
iron tools. And few days before I
left one of the native workmen
brought to light steel helmet, or
casque, such as were worn by the
fighting Spaniards of those days. The
Spanish mners simply worked off the
top of the land and made it necessary
for me to sink shafts and dig tunnels.
THE gold runs between 81 and $40
to the cubic yard and is worth S1S an
ounce. If it were not for the fevers
| believe that this section of Colombia
would be every bit as wealthy in gold
as the choicest districts of Alaska.
The next objection is that foreigners
are not permitted to purchase land
outright, but must lease it from the
natives.
The Choco district is no place for a
man who holds life too dearly. There
you may contract all the fevers ever
thought of and a few more. I have
gulped so much quinine in the last
two years that my ears ring like
cathedral chimes.
"And then there are the insects.
They all bite and bite hard in that
country. Every insect has bite pc
culiar unto itself and one that makes
a white man think of Dante's inferno
as haven of joy. Why, even the but
terfiies bite in that accursed country.
"All the animals are thin almost to
transparency. That is because they
are always on the run. Every beast
has another one constantly chasing
it and when white man comes along
they seem to concentrate their forces
and efforts to make him hit the
hurdles.
vegetation seems to grow more
rapidly than any place else on earth.
Talk about mushrooms, why, I've seen
things grow almost as watched
them. And every thirty days 1 have
to set the natives to cutting down
the jungle about the workings or the
sunlight would soon be hidden from US.
But I'm going back the first part of
June. not because l like fever or en-
Joy being chawed by insects, but be-
cause of the wealth in those Spanish
workings"
Colonel Wilbur had narrow escape
in getting out of his land of gold.
He journeyed by canoe down the
Atrato river. The first night of his
journey his boat hit half submerged
log and the prospector, his two ma
tives and his baggage went headlong
into the river The colonel and his
men managed to get hold of the over
turned boat and clung to it for over
an hour before they drifted opposite
an opening In the jungle where they
could struggle ashore. The prospec-
tor spent two days fishing in the trop-
ic stream for his belongings and res
cued a small trunk.