GUARDED GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 282, 28 November 1925, Page 31

GUARDED GOLD.

MILLIONS HOARDED UNDERGROUND.

TREASURE OF THE THREE PANCAKES. | i From Peru comes a story that "the latest of the many expeditions sent out "■■ to search for the treasure of the Tres Tortillas has failed to return and is presumably lost. The Tres Tortillas (Pancakes') arc three flat-topped hills which stand over tlie head waters of , the River Secure, which rises in an almost forgotten valley hemmed in by precipitous cliffs and reeking with viru- ; lent ague. Yet here, before the coming of the Spaniards, were great and I flourishing gold-mines, and ruins of whole towns built of stone or adobe maystill be seen, half hidden in the encroachjn" jungle (says a writer in "John o' , London's Weekly"). Expedition after j expedition has struggled to reach this I Eldorado, but of them all only two men have ever returned. One was dying on his legs of fever, the other was mad, but the/ brought a story of a huge dim tunnel in which lay piles of smelted gold ready for removal. j Vast Treasure. Treasure-seeking is one of the poorest methods of making a living, yet it is ; beyond any possible doubt that the gold buried by man in the bosom of Mother Earth far exceeds all that is in circulation at the present time. No need to talk of tie hoards of pirates or buc- ! cancers. There are first the vast treasures buried by the Indians of South America when fleeing before ,th e covetous Spaniards, then there are the 1 millions hoarded underground in India and China and in all other countries where banks have never been in fashion. In Morocco alone there must be tons , of such treasure, because for centuries j past it has been the habit of the Moors | to hide gold in the earth. _ | Quite apart from the difficulty of discovering such hiding-places,-the belief is rreneral that ill-luck awaits ihe treasurefinding, and the stories supporting such superstition- are countless. Near Johnsvale in Nova Scotia a hole in a cliff . was Tevealed by a tree blown down in I a storm. Two men went to. investi-1 oate, and did not return. They were ! found dead, suffocated by bad air,, and further'in were found two skeletons, apparently of earlier seekers Beside the bones stood an old iron kettle containing, a. few pieces of seven teen th-cen-turv gold' - In Britain. Our own country is full of legends of nuarded treasure. At Bransil -Castle, j in Herefordshire, there is said to be r < chest of gold watched-over by an.criH spirit in tlie shape of a black-crow;. Al l; that part of the country is. similar stories. Hulnie Castle and Stokesay Castle were each supposed to have treasure chests secreted in their vaults. Some years ago, when Hulme. Castle .was pulled down, a search, was made, hut' without result. V •_ In the South of Scotland Hermitage Castle is believed to have vast treasure "hidden" in its Tuins. ' But tlie gold is in the keeping of .the Evil One. and whenever efforts are made to find it. the sky darkens and a fearful storm.of thunder : and lightning paralyses the seekef. Another Scottish hoard is the pot of gold hidden in a pool under Craufurdland Bridge, near Kilmarnock. A former laird of Craufurdland dammed the burn and had almost emptied the pool when a voice was heard shouting _ that his house was afire. He and his men ran, only to find that the report; was a false one, but when they returned the dam was broken and. the pool full.