The Parker post. (Parker, Ariz.) 1910-1918, 1913-08-02
W|LDS Of COLOMBIA
Prospector Says He Has I'm.
earthed Spanish Claims.
Also Says That Life Down There Is
Worse Than Dante's Inferno-Digs
Up Relics of Days Long Past
-Quinine Steady Diet.

COl. JOnu >. WuDuF, veteran pros
pector, who has participated in more
gold rushes than he has years in his
life, and that means few, for the
grizzled seeker of Ell 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
! ''It is placer gold of the finest quail
/ ity that | have discovered" said the
veteran prospector. "And my lands
are the same that the early Spaniards
! I am using the same bitches that were
| dug by the dons almost three cen
/ turtles ago. Through these bitches l
! 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 !
! 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
I Spanish miners simply worked off the
/ top of the land and made 1t necessary
for me to sink shafts and dig tunnels.
"The gold runs between 81 and $40
to the cubic yard and is worth $18 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. | have
gulped SO much quinine in the last
+wo 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 a 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 a 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 eartlr
Talk about mushrooms WHY I've seen
things grow almost as watched
them. And every thirty days I have
10 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 I like fever or en-
+ Joy being chawed by insects, but be-
cause of the wealth in those Spanish |
workings"
Colonel Wilbur had a 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 a half submerged |
log and the prOspectOr, his two ma |
lives and his baggage went headlong |
iato the river The colonel and his |
men managed to get hold of the over
turned boat and chung 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
lie stream for his belongings and res
,ued a small trunk