THE REAL EL DORADO.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1916, Page 12

THE REAL EL DORADO.

MYSTIC LAKE IN COLOMBIA. FABULOUS TREASURES OF INCAS. (By E. H. SMITH, in "New York World.") I have talked with the man who has found El Dorado. I have seen his gold and emeralds, and listened to nis astounding story. He is a quiet-spoken, composed, Englishman, a practical mining man and capitalist. His name is Hartley Knowles. "I don't believe all the foolishness that has been written about this thing," he told' me easily. " You can see by consulting the memoirs of the British naval captain, Cochrane, that one French scientist estimated the treasure at £1,000,000,000 sterling. If we get out a million pounds' we will be pleased." So much for the result. In achieving it about £15,000 has been spent thus far, and the total is expected to reach about £IOOO more. El Dorado is not only a hoard;; it is a romance, a quest as compelling as any in history. In the days of the Spanish Conquest, in what is now the Republic of' Columbia, Central America, a full day's ride from the modern capital city of Bogota, high up on the crest of the Andean ridge, lay a little lake in the top of a tawny mountain that lifted itself like a broken eone. On its banks were four excavated temples, at whose entrances stood life-size human figures, cast of purest gold. On the surface of this

LITTLE MIRROR IN THE SKY rode a state barge,wonderfully wrought, blazing with jewels. They called the lake by some mystic name, which the Spaniards made into Guatavita. When, in 1512, the Spaniards first penetrated to Guatavita, they found a peaceable, industrious people, rolling in Andean gold, living under the placid, if mulcting rule of a temporal minded priest. He was called a cacique—ths Cacique of Guatovita. If the Spanish accounts are correct, this man was half priest and half god to his followers, a descendant of the mysterious powers of the mountain, brother of the shining j lake,- master of fates and fears. The lake, too was sacred, a god itself, and the abode of the Most High. These Andeans were sun-worshippers. Gold was the food of the golden god. It was mined for his pleasure. His truly was the golden service; his the golden sacrifice. On the great feast days of the year the cacique and his people made a great procession, and went to the top of the mountain and the shores of the sacred lake. Here a great ceremony was held. The cacique was finally divested of his clothing, anointed with heavy perfumed oils, and painted, over his entire body, with fine gold dust, which clung in the oils and left him the fleshly

VISION'OF THE GOLDEN GOD, j his relative. This service completed, the cacique and his suite stepped upon the ceremonial barge or raft, and this was pushed out into the middle of the lake. Now, * after prayers and ceremony, the officials who rode on the barge with the golden cacique seized the tribal treasures of gold, and cast them over their shoulders into the depths. Thus was the bright god fed. From this cacique, painted with gold dust, came the name El Dorado, which means, strictly, the goldon one. The Spaniards reached the country about Guatavita some time before they actually found the golden lake, of whkh much had been told them. The cacique and his followers had their repute in advance. They cast into the lake all the gold and precious stones they had, emerald mines, and calmly told the Spanish : " Gold in the bottom of the lake." From its small beginning the fame of the Golden One went all over Europe, until any fabulously rich gold deposit became El Dorado. Adventurers from every nation went in quest of the hoard. The Spanisli fitted out a great expedition, and started to drain the lake and get at the treasure on its floor. They cut out the side of the mountain, and let the level of the water down many fathoms. But Guatavita was fed by springs, and it was very deep. In the end the Spanish got a little treasure, of which the greatest single piece was an emerald, now in the Spanish crown jewels, valued at £14,000. Most conspicuous of these adventurers was Sir Walter Raleigh, who fitted out a special expedition to hunt for this and other treasure. He failed ignominiously.

ME. KNOWLES AND HIS SUCCESSFUL. VENTURE. Mr. Knowles' story is as follows: "I am a mining man, and have been interested in Columbia for twenty years past. I had known about Guatavita most of my life,and became fascinated by the idea of the submerged treasure when first I went to Columbia in 1894. About four years later I was able to form a syndicate in England for the purpose of draining the lake. We got together some money, and went to work in a new way. We dug a tunnel through the side of the mounntain, and let the water run off by gravitation. "Even then they didn't get enough grade. All the water ran oil' all right, but we found the floor of the lake great bog of mud, kept soft by the springs. We finally got these springs diverted,and for. the last few years have been dredging,digging,and shovelling out the mud. We arc nearly done. This year we will get to the real treasure, and bring it back to the day. "Of course, the constant moving of the very soft mud has naturally shaken the heavy gold and emeralds down into tiie deepest pit in the lloor. Mr. Knowles showed me a C'-ite-iderable number of the gold"" twiP'rej already recovered fror W.-'-Sj'Wfc All have a relig&R A StrsSjjoly I wrought gold, a goddess in an outlandishn posture, vessels and instruments used in the religions service,symbols,ornaments, idols. AH are most curiously wrought, cerved, inlaid or hammered. Most seem distinctly Egyptian. All bear a marked relationship to pottery and instruments recently found in other parts of equatorial South America, which have given rise to a theory connecting these early Americans with Asiatic civilisations of great antiquity. Gold and uncut emeralds valued at £4OOO have already been taken from the floor of Guatavita.