THE MISSING HEIRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10418, 23 March 1912, Page 1

THE MISSING HEIRESS.

A True Story cf a KDmarkaTjle Conspiracy. ("Pearson's Weekly.") The kidnapping of little Maria Peralta from her uncle's ranch in Arizona, U.S.A., in the spring of the year ISGI, stands out as tho central incident in one of the meet tangled, tortuous and remarkable criminal conspiracies of modern times.

The story really begins with the cession of Arizona to the United States by Mexico after the war of 1847-3. This territory was ceded subject to tho rights of privato individuals to the ownership of certain large tracts of land granted them in former times by various kings of Spain. Amongst the largest and most valuable of these was one known as the Peralta estate, a huge property, nearlyhalf the size of England. This had been granted by Philip V. of Spain to a certain Don Peralta of Cordova, and tho original deed of gift was said to no in existence in Madrid. Maria Peralta, who at the time of her disappearance was a bright and pretty child of ten, was the only legitimate descendant in the direct line of old Don Peralta.

Tho former nominal holders of tho estate, Maria Peralta's father and grandparents, had made no attempts at settlement. Arizona was then a no-man's land, friron over to wild beasts and savage Indian tribes. But after it was taken possession of by tho United States it began to be colonised, and ranches and mining claims wero taken up all over the territory, many of those being.situated on tho Peralta "claim," and towns were built upon it. NOTICE TO QUIT. Most of the property-owners in these now towns, as well as the ranchmen and mine-owners, had heard vaguely of tho Peralta deed of gift, but they took little notice of it, regarding it more or Ices as a fairy tale, and consoling themselves with tho reflection that in any caso possession was nine points of the law.

Imagine, therefore, their consternation, when one day they were served with ejectment notices by a lawyer acting on behalf" of Maria Peralta. About three thousand of these were sent out, and at hrot many of the recipients wero inclined to treat the matter as a lingo joke. But they soon found that it was no joking matter. The preliminary hearings of several selected cases resulted in a series of victories for tho plaintiff. Thoroughly alarmed, the threethousand defendants thereupon banded themselves together in a defence-league, while the lawyers rubbed their hand.') gleefully, and made ready for what looked like being tho biggest legal fight America had ever known". They were, however, doomed to disappointment. For, just as things wero beginning to get lively, there- caino the uow.% that the youthful plaintiff. Maria Peralta, had disappeared. She'had, it transpired, been out walking near her uncle's ranch, when a baud of four or five it minted hutkus. or white men disguised as Indians, had swooned down upon her and carried her away. AMONG TltF. .VI'ACUE INDIAN'S.

Now in Arizona at that time, and, imlc-.d. for long afterwards, it was no unconimru tiling for white women and girls to bo carried off in this way by tho savago Apache Indians. Usually the-;o captives wero held to ransom"; and, when Maria disappeared, her friendr, jad they viorc prepared to pay almost any sum in reason if tho child wore reUrned'to them.

Tlicy also sent tamo Apaches amongst their wild kindred to try to discover what had bk-ome of tho girl, but these all returned unsuccessful. They <ou'd, they declared, lind no traeo' of any such captive, nor, indeed, con'd they dircover any evidence of tho described raid.

Gradually it forced itself upon tho minds of the (hild's relatives and fr:c ;ds that the probability was that. she had b:--n tho victim of a diabolical outrage pb.rncd r.nd carried out, noo by in linns, hut. by men of I or o v, 11 and r-ol air. r\'fTor's wero still made, to find her. But these wero now carried on along different Hues. They also, houe-xr. came to nothing. Finally, the Civil War broke out, turning men's thoughts in other directions.

Tho lawsuit languished, and was prosen, ly abandoned ' altogether. It was. poinicd o-.t that unless the plaintiff, -Maria Pe alia, coidd bo produced, there was no possible hope of parcels. Sho was tho b:st of the'direct Peralta line. On her death tho Peralta property, there'ore, reverted to the United States Government.

, Fiitcen years p-~sed by: the affair had voril-nitrh fad' d from memory, when fuddeiily ni'.blic in it was re-a«-ajc-!,o(l Wl fh tenfold intensity by the s'r.rt'in : ar-noancoMncnt that Maria Po'-a'tn ]..:..'" Iwn in-., d. Her nlc'cd discoverer was o.no Jn.mo:i Addison I'eavis. an American la'id sivoiil and rnr-.-Mlator in real cstnu-. ifir. story v.as that lip had fo';nd -Vt.nna. now a boaiiiil'iil woman ol v.vevty-'avo, iivli-,..-; n:i n ranch in Mc-icc, wi!>i an old farmer who had u<U>..to'l he- arte:- ransoininfr h cr from u ro u;;', band ol Anadir? some twelve • years previously. I A.T.MI riKTKKN" YKAHS. j T? on vis brought (ho irirl with him to ! San ''Varn-ro, in e.'h:T with ovidr-nce-I re tifiraf ":s, affidavits, n;id so on—- ( that was ni:>;ios'd to identify her with ! t!:.f.i aussinn; lu'iros-'. I (or arrival in the . ("ij'ial of ibo Pacific >!r>no created an immense :oiisation. S'li.-j was tall, gracelul and aristocrauc-looking, arid al-

though she spoke no language but Spanish, and that imperfectly, this deficiency was easily explainable by tho circumstances.

During tho fifteen years that had elapsed since Maria Peralta had been spirited away, tho Peralta estates had enormously increc-sed in value. Indeed, the? were now computed to be worth not less than £20,000,000It was a stake worth trying for.

Reavis first made his position secure by marrying the heiress. Then he sc-t to work to prosocuto her claims. Fund?, in abundance wero found him by wealthy people who believed his story. Amoncst others, Mr Mackay, the wellknown Silver King, advanced him largo sums. THE CASE FALLS THROUGH. In due course the action came on before the United States Court of Claims, and for a time it locked likely to succeed. Then, suddenly, a bombshell wus sprung upon tho plaintiff, and her case fell to pieces. An agent of the cthor side had been sent to Madrid, and had brought back incontrovertible proof that the supposed original deed of gift to Don Peralta was a forgery. It does not appear that Rcavis knew •of this, and he certainly was not the author of the forgery, which was at least one hundred years old. But the consequences to him wero exceedingly unpleasant.

For all the othor documents in the case were now ordered to be impounded and examined, with the result that man}' of these also wore found to he forgeries. Next, the alleged . heiress broke down under cross-examination, and admitted that so far from being tho lost Atari a Peralta, she had never even heard cf that young person until Reavis mentioned the namo to her. She had, she added, spent the greater part of her girlhood's days with a party of strolling gipsy musicians.

Of course, the action was dismissed with costs, and Reavis was afterwards arrested, and put upon his trial for fraud and forgery He received a, long sentence cf imprisonment, which he served, and when last heard of was living quietly on a ranch in California with his wife, who stood 'by him throughout. Tho mystery of the fate of the real Maria Poralta was never properly cleared up. For some considerable tirim the theory was held that sho had soon kidnapped and murdered by a cents of the " other side," who had disguised themselves as Indians.

Later on, however, news filtered through to Fort Yuma that a young Spanish or Mexican girl, whose age and appearance tallied with that of Maria Poralta, had been held captivo for many years by a tribe of Apaches dwelling in tho wild mountain country beyond the Mohave desert'. One day she tried to escape, and, as a punishment, tho Indians tied her to a tree and shot her to death.

If this unhappy young woman were really Maria Peralta, then surely never before did the heiress of so many millions meet with so tragic a fate.