WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM (By T.D.H.) One gathers from to-day’s news that the greatest handicap to Arctic exploration is the unexampled scarcity of cigarettes in that region. Bve got trouble with the serpent in Eden, but Sir James Gunson’s worry there appears to be a wolf-gang he has discovered. The Due de Guise is claiming the v throne of France.—lsn’t there a descendant of the last Caesar tp claim the Roman Empire? If both the Aztecs and the Spaniards left a lot of gold in the ground in America waiting to be discovered by modern miners, as has been reported this week, these seems also to be an immense treasure hidden by the Incas of Peru which- no one has yet been able to discover. When Cortes m 1520 secured the Emperor Montezuma’s treasure in Mexico he found himself in possession of booty estimated *■ to be worth £1,417,000 in terms of prewar money. This seemed immense, but it was a pi ere bagatelle compared with what followed. * • • Thirteen years later Pizarro in Pern demanded ransom for the Inca Atahualpa, whom he had taken prisoner, and collected no less than £3,500,000. Unfortunately for Pizarro, new developments in the situation caused him to put Atahualpa to death, and the dispatch of further ransom from Cuzco ceased. The booty which Pizarro secured, however, was quite, as much as was good for anybody. It was chiefly in the form of square and oblong plafes of gold which had been used to adorn the walls of houses. Nevertheless, it is known that an immensely greater amount of gold remained at Cuzco than was ever received by Pizarro, but what became of it is a mystery. According to all accounts it still remains intact m Peru, and there is a tradition that the secret of its hiding place was preserved down to about a century back.

Between the time of the murder of Atahualpa and the arrival of Pizarro in Cuzco, it is stated that Carlos Inca had -the vast treasure still remaining in the capital secretly conveyed to a hiding place in the neighbourhood. Fortunately for Carlos, the Spaniards knew nothing of the concealment of the hoard, and less of the fact that he was the depository of the secret. When Carlos Inca went into exile he handed on the secret of the hiding place, and knowledge of it passed down through nearly three centuries. At length an old Indian, the last person to know the secret, died, brokenhearted, after a revolt against Spanish rule, and passing on his knowledge to no one.

This interesting story is told in the manuscript of Felipe de Pomares, which is deposited in the British Museum, and a portion of which was printed by • the late Sir Clements Markham in his history of the Incas. Senor Pomares had the story from Senora Astete, wife of Colonel Astete,. who assisted Mateo Garcia Pumacagua, cacique of Chinchero in his rising against Spanish rule in 1815. Pumacagua was defeated by the Spanish General Ramirez, taken’ prisoner, and hanged. His ill-starred - revolt, however, was the forerunner of independence for Peru.

Pumacagua was an old man of seventy-seven at the time of his revoltand he is the last person recorded as having seen the hoard of the Incas. He was in need of funds for his rebellion, and an old India, the sole inheritor of the secret, came to him and offered him all the gold he wanted from the treasure. Led up the river Huatanay for a long distance, blindfolded and in the middle of the right, Pumacagua at length found himself surrounded by vaseS, mugs, plates, ingots, and great statues, all of pure gold, and in incredible profusion. He took only what he urgently needed to equip his troops. Returning to Cuzco he went straight to Colonel Astete’s house.

“The Senora Astete,” says Senor Pomares, “told me that she could lemember his coming into the room with the gold, and wet through, to relate his adventures. His conductor was the last who knew of the secret, for when Pumacagua was killed he despaired of his country, and died without revealing it to a successor. 'I hope,* said Senora Astete, ‘that the treasure will never be found, for no one is worthy of it.’ ”

One of the greatest hauls of treasure made by the Spaniards in America was the £5,500,000 worth of gold dug up by Garcia de Toledo at Chimu, in Peru, in 1-577. What Spain got out of the New World altogether seems to be beyond computaition, but according, to - Prescott the revenue of Castile, which stood at 885,000 reals in 1474, had risen to 26,000,000 reals a year by 1504. Not all of this came from America, however, for Granada had in the meantime been added to the Spanish domains. In the reign of Isabella the mines of Haiti alone yielded 'a million ounces of gold annually. The influx of all this money resulted in a tremendous boom in Spain and gorgeous new palaces and buildings of all descriptions arose, and all sorts of means were devised to keep the gold in the country. But the easy money did Spain no good in the long run, and within a century she was going downhill into poverty street at a gallop.

The gold fever developed from the very first encounter of Columbus with the natives of the West Indies, for these people had some few ornaments of gold about tl\em —if the unhappy wretches had been able to foresee what was coming they would have thrown their trinkets into the deepest sea. The Spaniards at once inquired whence came the gold, and were told that it was from a race living to the southward, where there was a great king. Another time, in answer to the same question, they replied, "Cubanacan, Cubanacan,” meaning “in the interior of Cuba.” Columbus, who was full of Marco Polo’s stories of Asia, thought the reference was to the great Kublai Khan, the king of kings of Asia, and that he was really in the realms of this mighty monarch of the East.

ON THE BIRTH OF A CHILD. Lo, to tlie battleground of life,' Child, you have come, like a conquering shout, Out of a struggle—into strife; Out of a-darkness—into doubt. Girt witli the fragile armour of youth, Child, vou must ride into endless wars, With the sword of protest, the buckler of truth, And a banner of love to sweep the stars. About you the world’s* despair will surge; Into defeat you must plunge and grope. Be to the faltering an urge; Be to the hopeless years a hope I Be to the darkened world a flame, Be to its unconcern a blow; For out of its pain and tumult you came, And into its tumult and pain you gr , —Louis Untermcyer