HIDDEN GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 254, 23 October 1920, Page 17

HIDDEN GOLD.

! It is exactly four centuries since Cortez and hi; handful of Spaniards destroyed tlie Artec civilisation in their mad lust for gold. To-day a collection of Aztec nnd Inca cold valued at a million sterl- • ing is on view at the museum of the I'nivefsity of Pennsylvania. ! All this has been dug up at various ! times and in various places, from the I caves and hiding-places in which it was I orig-inally buried by its Indian owners. j Idols, amulets, ornaments, household 'utensils—the collection covers alniostthc 1 whole range of uses to which these two , lost civilisations put what was to them [ their commonest metal. iXor can it be doubted that millions more of similar ■ treasures lip hidden, awaiting the pick and spade of the enterprising explorer. Trea-iuv seeking is tli«* most fascinating pursuit in the world, and once a man is bitten with the craze he nevera abandons the seareii, writes a "Daily Mail" correspondent. There is not a year, hardly a month in the year, in which a treasure-seeking expedition is not fitted out to search for some hidden hoard, and although success does not enmo to one in a hundred, yet the certainly that ?uch treasures do- lie hidden on lonely shores or at the bottom of sandy bays is ever the bait for fresh effort. ' Some do achieve success. Witness the famous case of John Thipps, who began life as a ship"s carpenter, and ended it as Sir John Phippe, Governor of Massachusetts. His fortune was founded on the recovery of 3-2 tons of silver from a Spanish wreck off Hispr.niola (Hayti). La Fittc, a famous French buccaneer, buried a jrreat hoard in the Le°\Tari! . Islands, and was killed in a soa ftsrhfc in , I the Gulf of Mexico in ISIO, without I I being able to recover it. There ie every reason to believe that a certain little vessel of 400 ton's, 'iitted -out in the ; ' Thames ill 1888, carried a company who successfully retrieved this treasure :i • ■ ■ There ie heaps of treasure in Hayti. i When, in 1700, the blacks ruse and riic i i French planters were forced to flee for j their lives, they buried their gold in , I caucus and houses. In o.- -lbcm- I.S'JS a • poor man at Cape Ilaytien suddenly • be"an to buy land, horses, and boats. He I 1 had for.ntl £3000 in a chest under the • j half-ruined house in which he lived. , ! speculator then bought the house, pullo'i it all down, ami discovered further treasure worth .tMO.COO. ■But the most famous of lost treasures! ' is that supposed stul to exist among ■ the Cocos Islands, which lie some 500 ■ miles west of Panama. No less than 12 ' ■ million pounds is the value spoken of, • 'and within the past i~> years lislf a ' dozen cortly expeditions have vainly sought for this enormous fortune. The story is that in lS3f>, when Lima was threatened by insurgents, the rich cii'zens put all their valuables aboard th-e ■ haniuc Mary Dyer, and sent her to the ' Cocos for safe keeping. Her crew qua-r- ---' ! relied, most were killed, and the secret i lof the hidng-place wae lost.