A TREASURE HUNT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 4

A TREASURE HUNT

BOLIVIA EXPEDITION UNDER-G-EOUND FORTRESS (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 27th June. At the beginning of this year a party of twenty men set. out from Liverpool to go in search of treasure supposed to have been hidden by the Jesuits from 1767 to 1778 on the banks of the Sacambaya Eiver, Bolivia. A New Zealander Mr. J. 11.I1. St. B. Barclay,who had not long since finished ■ his, studies at Emmanuel" College, Cambridge, was a member of the expedition. : At the time of their departure the full story of the £12,000,000 worth of treasure was told. The Spanish Crown in those early days demanded a royalty from the Jesuits, who were working the rich mines in Bolivia. The Jesuits refused and they were prevented from sending gold out of the country. For eleven years they are supposed to have stored their treasures in some secret place. Eventually they were deported. The legal right to seek for this treasure has devolved on Dr; Edgar Sanders, a mining engineer, who is now in command of the party. During previous excavations he found a tunnel which he was convinced led to the hidden chamber. He also found a parchment on which was written in Spanish a warning and a curse upon anyone who should enter the place. _ "A dolorous death awaits him in this world," it was written, "and eternal condemnation in the world he goes to." - AN EXCITING DISCOVERY. i The "London Star" has now received a cablegram from its correspondent, who says:— ' After dynamiting and carrying out hydraulic operations at "Square Stone Heap" we made an exciting discovery to-day. Beheath the' twenty tons of rock which f we had moved we found a well-built wall. • Wo believe it must be the dome to the treasure chamber. : Each day our blasting and cutting operations havo brought to light interest- ' ing finds. There have been discoveries of an underground fortress, complete . with staircases :and rooms; and wo have also found bones and ornaments. . . "During- ; ' the excitement of- the! work, there'was a'mysterious-"collapse of three .of our cranes. It was a miracle that? there were no casualties. Wo are now busy reassembling the cranes. I Work has started on the excavation of the tunnel, and our Indians are apparently impressed by the solidity of the expedition. "I have to report sovoral minor acci- ' dents and cases • .of sandfly fever amongst • the ' whites- and ' malaria ' amongst the'lndians.' However;' de-' spite the death-breeding atmosphere of this place, the expedition is keeping comparatively fit. Everyone is cheerfully working ten hours a day under the most exacting conditions, operating the pneumatic drills and spades and the hydraulic machinery. , "Wo mount a {ruurd at night, for wo, arc taking no risks. Incidentally we had our first mustard and cress of our own grown seeds from Eiigland today." '' .