LONG HIDDEN TREASURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 419, 10 November 1930, Page 8

LONG HIDDEN TREASURE

REPORTED DISCOVERY. KuMANUE OF THE ANDIJS. Guarded by a tribe of 700 Indians in a mountain fastness of the Andes, the fabulous treasure and remains of Atahualpa, the last and one of the richest of Inca kings, has been discovered, according to Julio Torres, a lawyer cf Rio Bamba and leader of a party of trea-sure-hunters. says a recent Guayaquil despatch to the New ork Times. The discovery was reported at the Indian village of Nicaz, near Alausi, ind Senor Torres has requested the minister of the treasury to lend soldiers to protect the diggers from the Indians, who probably guarded the secret location as sacred. The prospectors discovered last November a cave in a mountain pass at Azuay. containing an Inca idol and skeletons which convinced them that thev were on the trail of the Inca treasure collected as part of the enormous ransom Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of the Incas, demanded for the life of the last king, Atahualpa. When a prisoner of the < onquista lores in 1533, Atahualpa offered Pizirro to fill his cell with treasure as high as could reach his hand on the wall, if bis life was spared. At the command of their king the Incas brought treasure from all parts of the vast empire, and it is estimated that gold plate and jewels to the value of £15.000.000 had been paid when Pizarro broke his promise and murdered Atahualpa. The Incas then concealed the balance of the treasure intended as ransom in the mountain?, and for centuries adventurers have been searching vainly for it. Many years ago Juan Valverde, a poor Spaniard married to an Indian girl, is supposed to have learned the location of this hidden treasure, as he suddenly became immensely wealthy. He returned to Spain, taking the fortune and secret with him, but when he died, he gave the King of Spain direction for finding the treasure. The trail described by Valverde has been followed by many treasure-hunt-ers. but they always lost it in the Margasitas Mountain. The trail was followed in 1857 as far as Margasitas by Richard Spruce, an English botanist, who reported that up to that point Valverde T s directions “corresponded perfectly’ with the locality an landmarks.’’ If the treasure is actually recovered, there is a possibility of controversy as to ownership, as the Government is likely to demand a share, and descendants of Caras the princess mother of Atahualpa, are said to live in the village of Yaruquies, near Rio Bamba. Five centuries ago, when the Inca icing, Huayna Capac, came from Cuzco and conquered the reigning house of Caras he became enamoured of and married a daughter of Stain. King of Caras This princess was the mother of the unfortunate Atahuaulpa, and from this line of Royal Caras, the Duchicelas. an humble Indian family of Yaruquies, are said to be descendants.