MAN’S ROMANTIC ADVENTURES IN QUEST FOR BURIED TREASURE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 21 January 1929, Page 11

MAN’S ROMANTIC ADVENTURES IN QUEST FOR BURIED TREASURE

Expedition to Bolivia Buried, treasure is, ia this age of enlightenment, or scepticism, a bait which to tho ordinary businessman is about as attractive as the familiar gold brick that is sometimes offered for purchase by a certain reprehensible type of citizen who hopes, by appealing to tho imagination, to make quite a useful sum of money. Further, buried treasure in Bolivia sounds too alliterative and too romantic toi be true in the 2Gth. century. And yet, only last year, an expedition left England for that tempestuous little, country in search of a vast treasure thht was buried many years ago—about the time when there was. quite a treasure-bury-ing epidemic among tho monks . and tribes who flourished then. A member of the expedition was Mr J.' F. St. B. Barclay, an old boy of Christ’s College, who is in Christchurch at tho present time, and in an interview with a representative of the Christchurch Press he told something of his experiences. ■ •

From the outset he made it clear that the element of romance in this expedition was about ono per cent., and the clement of hard work about 99 per cent. “Treasure hunting, may be romantic,’’ he said, “but for us it was ten hours’ hard work a day.” Nevertheless, one gathered from listening to his narrative, that there was more than just a leavening' of romance in it all, if adventure may bo called romance. One need never claim in Bolivia that nothing ever happens, and even to get anywhere near the treasure there were the ordinary natural risks to run—such as pumas, panthers, •snakes, scorpions, flies, and worst of all the malaria-carrying mosquito, whose assaults were guarded against by ten grains of quinine taken daily. Added toi all this, however, there was a villian in the piece—a Cornishman, who was also after the .treasure, and whose chief occupation was in holding up pay rolls.

The Journey. The expedition was the Sacambaya Exploration Company ,and was under the leadership of Dr- Edgar Sanders, and comprised 23 white men, among whom one wias a Gorman, the Test being English. Tho party left England on March Ist. of last year and, going by rail to La Pas> they mountain pass to Ponga, where there are a number of American mining camps. The site of the treasure was 40 miles from here, and it took some considerable time to get the equipment there, as it could be reached only by a mule track, and they had to blast their way through in many places. The equipment included four Ingersool Band compressors to drive the engines and crane, and these the Indians who were with them were firmly convinced were evil spirits. Only five of the party escorted the engines, while tho others went ahead, and those five wero faced with tremendous handicaps. Block and tackle had to be used to pull the engines ever the rough places, and there was also a shortage of food to contend with,

Then there was some outside interference. A Minister in the Bolivian Government was in strong favour of the Jesuits and he opposed, them and aid everything to hinder the expedition “Ho sent a spy to our camp,” Mr Barclay said, “and a lot of tough customers had pot shots at us, but thoy never disturbed us. It was a most remarkable thing,” he went on, “that the whole 25 of us were strangers, but we had enough sense to realise that we had to make allowances and we pulled well together. I may say that we were very disgusted when wo found that our foreman, in whom we had placed implicit trust, was a spy of this Cornishman who had been giving us so much trouble. When we found - this out we did not know what to do with him, but we speedily came to a solution in rather a novel way. In Bolivia you can get a fellow locked up for a sum equal to £7 10s, so we mustered an armed escort, took him in, paid eur money, and got him in for three months Two days later, however, we were notified that tho subinspector to wiiom wo had paid the £7 10s had left, and if wo wanted tho man kept in we would have to pay another £7 10s to the successor. That is typically Bolivian.”

A Scientist’s Claim. The belief that there is treasure at this particular spot is based partly on a document, but in addition to this a German scientist named Gladitz, who is vouched for by Vickers, Ltd., and other responsible firms, has a process of determining by photographic rays and emanations whether gold is present in the ground.' The year bofOto the expedition, Mr Barclay said, Dr Sanders visited this scientist without disclosing his identity. .Indeed it is extremely unlikely-that Gladitz had even heard of the treasure. Dr Sanders showed him about 90 photographs of the locality, and the very one where the treasure was supposed to bo lie declared was the sight of the buried gold. “The man cannot be deliberately deceitful,” said Mr Barclay, “because there is no •point in his being so, whereas if he is successful ho stands to win a large sum of money. The fact remains that with 30 feet to go we excavated 30,000 tons of earth, and then struck an underground water table, and our pumps were not strong enough. The rainy season was threatening, and', operations had to be postponed, but Dr, Sanders is going back next year. Of course, the place is being taken care of. We managed to smuggle in four machine guns and fifty irflcs, end we gave it out that if we were worried by Government interference we would throw in our lot with the revolting parties” (the inference being that there are always revolting parties in Bolivia).

Dr. Sanders has himself written a brief account of the Jesuit gold mines in Bolivia and of the treasure hidden by the Sacambaya river in the eighteenth century, but there is not space, here for it all. The Jesuits at Plazuela, threatened with confiscation of their

riches by the Spanish Government, concealed all the gold and silver they had ready for shipment, and, as far as possible, the-location of the move important mines. Among these were the mines of El Carmen and Tree Tetilias, reputed to be tho richest in the whole of South America, and which have not been rediscovered to this day. It is known that the Jesuits employed GOO Indians on the construction of thin hiding place and that the -work tank two and a half years. When the Jesuits were deported, the deposit on the Sacambaya contained gold, silver and precious stones, the value of which was estimated at slightly over £12.000,000. Manv expeditions have been fitted out to look for this treasure, bu-. they have all failed, mostly through lack of system. Dr Sanders had already explored the hill under which the treasure is said to repose, and he has discovered a tunnel which he .believes to be one of the ' secondary entrances which are known to exist to the chambers.

Mr Barclay, who is quite a young man, wa-s educated at'Christ's. College, and afterwards went to Cambridge, and becoming “fed up” as ho termed it> (with Cambridge, he joined tho Sacambaya Exploration Company, and left England on March 1 with Dr. Sanders.