Smyrna times., 1933-10-25
TONS OF GOLD
MAY BE IN LAKE
Legion of Golden Man" Is
Not Unbelievable Accord
ing To Find
FORTUNE TO GAMBLE ON

/
gold, huge emeralds and other jew
els and precious metals, lying en-
bedded in the mud at the bottom Of
small but deep lake in the Andes
mountains, waiting for some one
with a fortune to gamble on their
reclamation
So goes the legend, and it may
be true. Certainly everything points
that way. But one can never tell
and the cost of an expedition to re-
! cover the priceless treasure would
4 be enormous.
OF course, nothing is more natural
than that a country known to be
rich in natural deposits of gold, plat
mum and emeralds, should have it's
fabulous legends. The country is
Colombia, South Americas northern
most nation, former stamping ground
of the Muyscas Indians.
Grabbed Vast Wealth.
In the Sixteenth century, the
SpaniardS came to this m yuntainous
garden spot and wrested enormous
| wealth from the ground Compare
lively recent history tells us of the
galleons which set forth in fleets
from ancient Cartagena, today one
of ColOmbia's leading Atlantic ports,
laden with treasure consigned to the
Old world.
Today's commercial statistics show
the same region, known as the
Republic of Colombia" ever since
Simon Bolivar freed it from the
Spanish yoke, to be South Americas
richest producer of gold. the worlds
leading producer of emeralds, the
costliest of jewels, and second
among all platinum producing cOun-
tries under the sun.
With these facts before you, it is
not difficult to believe the legend
of the Golden Man." king of the
Muyscas. whose city was known as
"El DOrado"-the treasure city.
Every year on a certain day, ac-
cording to the AIuyscas tradition
passed down from generation to
generation by word of mouth, the
king rubbed his body with the sticky
sap of certain trees and permitted
the priests of his city to cover him,
from head to foot. with gold dust,
applied with miniature blow guns.
He then walked majestically down
60 - 81. - \ L..
pure gem-like pool of crystal clear
water cupped in the heights of the
Andes quite near to his capital city
of FL Dorado. There he left his
priests behind, putting forth upon
the water on small raft. Arriving
at the center of the lake, he stood
up and prayed for shower of
gems from the gods. Then he dived
overheard.
This was the signal for all the
people of his city who were gath
cred along the shore to take part In
the ceremony, to hurl their most pre-
cious possessions into the lake.
These were invariably gold and jew
es, chiefly emeralds, which they
mined with great effort from the adj
joining mountain sides.
Ii Grew and Grew.
! And so, year after year, the treas
ure at the bottom of Lake Guata-
1 bita grew in size and Unreasonable
value. The legend OF the Golden
Man was repeated and spread
through the New world. Germans
who had settled upon the coast Of
Venezuela in 1890 set out for Lake
Guatavita to recover the lost wealth,
but Indians banded together and
drove them back. Others followed.
A Frenchman named De Sepulveda
partially drained the lake and recov-
cred a few emeralds, one of which
he was reported to have sold for
100000. Spanish conquisitadOres
tried their hand at the treasure
without success. AS late as 1903,
a group of British engineers were
given a government concession to
retrieve the treasure of ii Dorado.
They spent a fortune draining the
lake, but found that the bottom had
caked so hard that other fortunes
would be required to chip it away,
so they abandoned their venture.
The lake filed up again and has so
remained for thirty years.
Today speculation is rife as to
whether there really exists a fabu-
lous treasure at the bottom of Lake
Guatavita or whether it is merely a
figment of the imaginative Indian
mind, story elaborated as 1t passes
from mouth to mouth. from father
to son, until the facts are lost In
fantastic establishment.