HIDDEN GOLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

HIDDEN GOLD.

It is exactly four centuries since Cortex and his handful of Spaniards destroyed the i Aztec civilisation in their mad lust for gold. To-day a collection of Aztec and lnca gold valued at a million sterling is on view at the museum of the University of Pennsylvania. _ All this has been dug up at various times and in various places, from tiie caves and hiding-places, in which it was originally buried by its Indian owners. Idols, amulets, ornaments, 'household utensils—the collection covers almost the whole range of uses to which these two lost civilisations put what was to them their commonest metal. Nor can it be doubted that millions more of similar treasures lie hidden, awaiting the pick and spade of the enterprising explorer. Treasure seeking is the most fascinating pursuit in the world, and once a man is bitten with the craze he never abandons the search, writes a Daily Mail correspondent. There is not a year, hardly a month in the year, in which a .treasure-seeking expedition is not fitted out to search tor some hidden hoard, and although success does no! come to one in a hundred, yet the certainly tlmt such treasures do lie hidden on lonely shores or at the bottom of sandy bays is ever the bait for fresh effort. ' Some do achieve success. Witness the famous case of John Phipps, who began life as a ship's carpenter, and ended it as Sir John Phipps. Governor or Massachusetts. His fortune was founded on the recovery of :!2 tons of silver from a Spanish wreck off Hispaniola (TTayti).. La Fiitc, a famous French buccaneer, buried a great hoard in Hie Leeward Islands, and was killed in a sea light in the Gulf of Mexico in 1W), without heing able to recover it. There is every reason In believe that a certain little vessel of 400 tons, fitted out in the Thames in 1888, carried a company who successfully retrieved this treasure. There is heaps of treasure in li'ayti. When, in 1700, the blacks rose and the French planters were forced to flee for their lifes, .they buried their gold in gardens N houses In or about 180S a floor man at Cape Haytien suddenly