Mountains of Gold Deep in Jungle

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1070, 6 September 1930, Page 18

Mountains of Gold Deep in Jungle

Young French Explorer Home From South America says Next Gold Rush Will Be To Brazilian Hinterland Where Fabulous Wealth Awaits Enterprising Men.

BELIEVE that there are literally mountains of pM gold not more than 300 miles from the fringes of civilisation.

“I even talked with prospectors who had been there. They claimed that as lar as the eye could see there was gold, gold, gold, but they had such a terror of the poisoned darts of the Indians, of the wild animals, reptiles, mosquitoes and of starvation, that nothing would tempt them to return.” A young French engineer, explorer j and ex-officer, Roger Courteville, has j just returned home from a trip across j the vast unexplored Brazilian jungle with the most glamorous tales of the richness of that country. Courteville, who went out to Brazil with a French military mission after the war, crossed the jungle front Rio de Janeiro to La Paz, Bolivia, in 19271928, to survey the route of a proposed motor road. In 1929-1930 he travelled from Asuncion, Paraguay, up to Cuyaba and Matto Grosso, Brazil, and thence up to the headwaters of the Amazon, to mark out airdrome sites for a French company that is proposing to open air lines up and down South America. Incidentally, he believes that Col- j onel Fawcett, the English explorer, j who has been reported dead many | times, is still alive, although Fawcett’s j •son and his companion, Raleigh Rim- I mel, are undoubtedly dead. Intrepid Englishman “I met Colonel Fawcett a few miles ; north of Cuyaba, the base of all the j expeditions that go into the jungle, | about October, 1927, which was after he was reported missing,” Courteville told me. “He was walking along a trail, heading north-east, and seemed to be badly bitten by mosquitoes, but otherwise be looked all right. I talked to him in English for a few minutes and then went on my way. “When I passed through Cuyaba again a few months ago, on my second trip, I had a long talk with Louis Leduc, a Brazilian of French descent, who is chief of police of the district. Leduc knows Fawcett, saw him start out and has always taken much interest in him. He told me that the Indians who come into Cuyaba from time to time declare that the Englishman is still alive and is with a tribe about 250 miles north-east from there. He has turned native, become a chief, wears Indian costume and lives like a lord.” According to the Brazilian authorities, Colonel Fawcett is trying to find the Los Martyrios mine that is on the west bank of the Paranatinga River. About 50 years ago a party of Brazilian prospectors penetrated into this country. which is inhabited by a particularly savage tribe of Indians called the Coroas, and found a mountain that was absolutely tilled with gold. They took away all tho ore they could t arry, but all except one or two were killed by Indians, fever, or hunger. The survivors led other expeditions into the region, but were unable to locate the same mountain again. “Unfortunately, I had neither the time nor the equipment nor the force to go searching for gold,” Courteville declared with a sigh, but there is overwhelming evidence of vast deposits over a huge region. I examined the silt in many river beds hundreds of times, and I don’t think I ever failed to find the gleaming yellow grains. Horrors of Jungle “You will wonder why, with untold riches at their very doorsteps, the Brazilians don’t rush into the jungle and become Croesuses. if you only heard the horrifying stories of a few prospectors who have survived these adventures! Time and again parties of men, excited by the news of a big strike, would leave their homes and families and plunge into the wilderness with very little food and virtu ally no arms or medicines. As the lood commenced to run short, the sick and feeblo would be cold-bloodedly left behind to die. The majority did not even know how to hunt or fisli for food, nor possess the simple qui nine that wards off most, of the fevers One by one they would be picked of! by hostile Indians, shooting theii poisoned arrows from invisible hiding places. A few hardy men would some times reach the gold country, mort dead than alive. Becoming frenziec

at the sight of so much wealth, they I would throw away their remaining food, supplies, and weapons in order j to carry more of the metal. Then \ they would start back, perhaps two or three months’ journey through the jungle, with a crushing burden of gold. Tens of thousands of fools, rich beyond their fondest hopes, died along these awful trails —starved, burned up with a fever, transfixed by a bamboo arrow through the chest, or chewed to pieces by wild animals. “Among the handful of survivors that one finds in the frontier towns like Cuyaba there is one named Lopes, who had a remarkable experience. "He went on one of these expeditions as a boy a few years ago and fell sick. As the food was limited, the chief of the party halted the pirogues in full jungle one day and pushed Lopes ashore. ‘You better pray, because you will die soon, the mau said roughly, and then went on his way. Lopes fell asleep. When he woke up he was astonished to see a young deer beside him. In desperation. he killed the deer with his knife, made himself a good meal and hung up the rest to dry. The boy lived for a month like this, becoming stronger all the time. One day he saw the expedition that had put him ashore coming down the river again, heading home. The chief and most of the others had died. A few survivors were starving. Lopes joined them and was the only one of the party to return alive. He would never go back | into the jungle again.” In the Archives ; Courteville, who reads and speaks Portuguese fluently, was permitted to examine the old State archives at Cuyaba, a town of about 5,000 persons that is the capital of the State of Matto Grosso, and he discovered that two, three and four centuries ago the ; Portuguese took vast quantities of : gold out of this jungle country. The j Governors went into the interior with large, well-armed and well-equipped parties and dug out the metal without any hindrance. They charted the richest deposits and were quite familiar with the country. The old archives tell the complete story of their expeditions, with full details of the amounts brought back. "I went into several old churches in the town of Matto Grosso, now entirely in ruins. The doors and the roofs of the churches had fallen in years ago. I prowled around out of curiosity and picked up some heavy dishes and altar ornaments that were badly discoloured. Scratching them with a knife, I was amazed to find that they were solid gold. In fact, the whole altar was more or less gold. Tlxese priceless objects, which had lain there untouched for yeai’s, give an idea of how the country was rolling in wealth in the old Portuguese times. I marvelled that some of the poor settlers around Matto Grosso had not carried off these objects, but I suppose that they thought it would bring them bad luck. “In other ruined churches in dead frontier towns it is just the same. One had only to scrape around the altar and he found gold everywhere.” The young Frenchman is trying to organise an expedition in France for the purpose of going into the Brazilian jungle and exploiting the famous Los Martyrios mine or other deposits. He believes that a party of 50 strong men, with ample arms, food and medicines, could go anywhere into the gold country 300 or 400 miles north-east of Cuyaba. The expedition would travel either by motor-boats or motor-cars, as horses wander away too easily and are picked off by the Indians.

1 non t tuinxt mat a loree ux xxi'-y rifles would be in much danger from the Indians,” Coiirleville declared, j “The tribes are rather small and it does not seem to be their practice to | join together to attack caravans. Some j tribes are very friendly, others are j just the contrary. As strangers ap- j proacli they hide in the deep foliage j and let fly a hail of ari'ows. For th,is { reason it is generally safer to travel 1 by water and remain in midstream. A little so-called maf ic deeply impresses j even the fiei’ces*. warriors and makes them hesitate about attacking. On my last trip I made a few reactions in test tubes with acids, changing the liquid from one colour to another J almost instantaneously. I got more protection out of this against my Indian guides, who were none too reliable, than with all my arms. It is always better policy to appease the Indians, and I believe that if a. party went into the jungle with plenty of cheap presents, as well as a little modern magic, it would, not be attacked. “All this jungle country is full of ferocious animals and reptiles. The animals will not attack a large party, of course, and a good doctor will know how to handle reptile bites. Furthermore, persons travelling by boat escape most of these annoyances. The jxingle is simply gridded with big, navigable rivers, many of them passing right thi-ough the gold country. Some of them have big falls, of course, I but these can be passed when the water is low. The Brazilian prospectors always travel by water, using pirogues with native rowers. The Indians are at a great disadvantage when they try to launch an attack on the water, for they cin be picked off easily with rifles, whereas in the forest they are invisible.” “Howling Wilderness” Courteville insists that fifty gentle-, men of fortune could go into this howling wildnerness and stake out claims that might make them the richest men in the world. The Brazilian Government grants concessions freely in the jungle, and if the explorers returned with a boatload of high-assay ore there would be little trouble about getting capital. “I know it sounds incredible that the Bi-azilians do not go and prospect for this gold, as their ancestors did several centuries ago,” Courteville continued, “but from all my inquiries along the jungle frontier I judge that the frontier owns, mostly containing mixed breeds, are so listless that they do not even buy gold from the Indians. It is incredible. These poverty-stricken families are simply living beside a vast treasure and either don’t know it or are indifferent. Of course, most of them are sick from fever or mosquito bites all their lives and ai’e unable to get even the simjxlest medical treatment. Whether I am able to get an expedition together or not, one of these tlays there is going to be the greatest gold rush to Brazil that the world ever saw. The dash to . the Klondike will seem tame beside it.” According to the Frenchman, the mountainous regions where the gold exists are quite healthy and tempei’ate. It is only the swamps in the lowlands that are dangerous, and one can more or less avoid these by travelling on the rivers. There is plenty of game and fish for men who know how to catch them, as ivell as tropical foods of all soi'ts. Courteville spent more than two years in this jungle, accompanied by his Brazilian wife, mechanic and several Indian rowers, and never fell ill nor was he ever attacked by the Indians.