THEY FOUND GOLD
The Story of SUCCESSFUL TREASURE HUNTS
By A HYATT VERRILL
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Chapter XI.
DREDGING THE TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN HIND. 150
How the
depression led to a fortune.
Chapter XII.
DIGGING TREASURES FROM ANCIENT GRAVES .
160
Millions from
tom bs. The author's royal mummy. The
tale of a golden hoard.
This
chapter relates som e of the author’s exploits in Panama and Peru
CHAPTER XI
Dredging the
Treasure of The GOLDEN HIND
THE name of Sir Francis Drake is familiar to
every one, and every school child has read in histories of the famous British sea-fighter and his deeds, such
as the destruction of the Invincible Armada, and how he insisted upon
finishing a game of bowls as the Spanish
fleet sailed up the Channel; how he
harassed the Spaniards in the New World, and sailing through the Straits of Magellan explored and mapped the Pacific and the
islands of the South Seas and was the first to enter the
Golden Gate and explore the coasts
of California. But com paratively few
persons know of red-bearded Sir Francis Drake's exploits as a pirate, or are
aware of the fact that "El
Draco," as the Spaniards called
him, accumulated an enormous amount of loot, such a vast amount in fact, that
his famous Golden Hind could not
carry it all in safety and Drake was forced to throw a good-sized fortune into the sea.
History holds few characters as fascinatingly
adventurous, daring and rom antic as
Sir Francis Drake, and regardless of whethe r
he was a privateer, as the British claimed,
or a pirate as the Spaniards
considered him, his exploits went far to break the
power of Spain and to establish
British Dom inion in the New World . A
marvelous seaman and navigator, as fiery and tempestuous by nature as his ruddy
hair and beard would indicate, absolutely fearless, and a born fighter through
and through, Drake and his men "synged ye bearde of ye Kynge of
Spaine," with right good will and com plete
success, and in the doing of it
proved himself as great a treasure gathe rer
as he was a fighter.
On the
Isthmus of Panama he and his men held up a mule
train of bullion, as well as the
retinue of the Treasurer of Peru
with all the family fortune and
jewels, and secured thirty tons of silver, in addition to a large amount of
gold and jewels. But, unfortunately for the
British, the Spaniards rallied; a
large force from Panama was
dispatched to attack the raiders and
recover the booty, and Drake and his
men were com pelled to beat a hasty
retreat after hurriedly burying fully half of the ir
loot, most of which was dug up by the
Spaniards.
Even fifteen tons of silver, not counting a
large quantity of gold and jewels, was quite a haul, amounting as it did in
Drake's time to nearly half a million dollars, yet it was nothing com pared to the
treasures which Sir Francis took from
the Spaniards a few years later.
Sailing from
England with the avowed purpose of
seeking a northwest passage around America, and mapping the
Pacific islands and the coast of
North America, Drake in the Golden Hind circumnavigated the world, and as a side line to his explorations
made fame and fortune for himself and othe rs
by robbing the Dons of the greatest single treasure ever taken by any one
ship, eithe r privateer or pirate.
Sailing leisurely up the
west coast of South America , Drake quite
casually attacked and looted one Spanish town after anothe r.
It was really a simple matter, for the
Spaniards never dreamed of "El Draco"
being in the Pacific and were too
amazed and terrified when he suddenly appeared off the ir
shores to offer any great resistance.
The sack of Coquimbo yielded many tons of
silver; several Spanish galleons were taken and the ir
cargoes of precious metals were transferred to the
hold of the Golden Hind, and Drake decided to have a try at Callao, the port of Lima, and the
richest town in all Spanish America. It was a lucky day for Drake, for swinging
at anchors in the harbor was a fleet
of plate ships. No sooner did the
Spaniards recognize the Golden Hind than the y
scrambled into the ir boats and
pulled frantically for shore, leaving Sir Francis to help himself to the treasures in the
deserted ships.
Picking and choosing while the terrified Dons looked on helplessly from the
shore, El Draco transferred the rich
cargoes of the vessels to the Golden
Hind; and a worth-while booty it proved. There were tons of silver bars,
hundreds of golden ingots, boxes of specie and chests of plate, gems and
pearls, linens and velvets, silks, wines, and a vast store of powder and ball.
By the time the
entire treasure had been loaded onto the
Golden Hind she was low in the water, but Drake was not yet satisfied. From a captured Spaniard he learned that the Cacafuego,
carrying the most valuable of all the plate ships' cargoes, had sailed for Panama two
days before his arrival, and hastily cutting the
cables of the vessels he had robbed,
and setting the m adrift, he clapped
on sail and started in chase of the
treasure ship.
To any one but Drake that long stern chase would
have seemed a hopeless undertaking; but Sir Francis knew no such word as fail,
and day after day the heavily laden Golden Hind sped northward. And as from time to time small coasting craft were
overhauled, and by threat of death or worse the
British forced the ir skippers to
give information of the Cacafuego, the y
knew that the y were steadily gaining
on her. At last one day, just as the
sun rose over the crests of the distant Andean peaks, Sir Francis's brothe r, John, aloft at the
masthe ad, sighted the Spanish ship and won El Draco's golden chain as
a reward for having first sighted the
Cacajuego.
At six o'clock that morning the two ships were within cannon range, and as the guns of the
Golden Hind thundered the Spaniards' mizzenmast came crashing to the deck with all the
tangled rigging.
Not a shot was fired in return, not the least resistance was offered by the Spaniards who, no doubt, felt that to sacrifice the ir lives to protect the
King's riches was a tactless thing to do and would avail nothing in the end as Drake was certain to take the ship anyway. Moreover, the
captain of the plate ship had never
imagined danger near, his guns were lashed fast and not even loaded, and long
before the y could have been charged
and manned the British would have
swarmed aboard like fiends from hell
and would have spared none.
Drake had expected to find the Cacajuego
carrying a rich cargo; but even he was amazed to find what a stupendous
treasure was within her hold and strong-room .
There were tons of precious metals; eighty pounds of gold dust, thirteen cases
of royal plate, nearly forty tons of silver bullion, three hundred bars of
silver and forty-four chests of vessels, Incan images and othe r objects of gold and silver, In addition to
innumerable jewels, the whole
amounting to the stupendous value of
more than a million and a half dollars.
No doubt the Spaniards were sick at heart as the y watched this enormous treasure being transferred
from the
crippled ship to the Golden Hind. But despite the ir chagrin and the ir
hard luck the Spanish captain still
possessed a keen sense of humor. When at length the
transfer of the cargo had been com pleted, and Drake magnanimously released the Spanish crew and the ir
officers and gave the m permission to
continue on the ir voyage, the navigator, Nufio de Silva, grinned. "Your
Excellency," he remarked, addressing Sir Francis, "I see now that my ship
was improperly named. Rathe r than the Cacajuego
(Spitfire) she should have been christened the
Cacaplata (Spit silver)."
Although by now the
Golden Hind was so low in the water that the
seas broke over her midships decks, yet Drake must needs have anothe r fling at collecting treasure, and being
conveniently near the town of Guatulco
he paid a visit to the port, gathe red in a few hundred pounds of currency and a goodly
quantity of jewelry and golden ornaments from
the citizens, and sailed away for the Island of Cano.
Here he landed his immense treasure, and careened,
cleaned and refitted the Golden Hind, work which was badly needed
before the vessel was in fit
condition to proceed on her interrupted voyage around the
world.
Perhaps Drake felt that this was as good an
opportunity as any to divide the
vast loot he had taken, or possibly the
men insisted upon seeing the ir
shares doled out and thus learning how rich the y
had becom e. At all events, Sir
Francis apportioned the currency,
using a wash bowl as a measure, and giving each member of his ship's com pany sixteen bowls-full of coins; and as he could
not well hand over silver bars and golden ingots, or the
tons of gold for the men to carry in
the ir pockets or pack in the ir sea-chests, he made a list of all the loot, and duly credited each man with his proper
share.
Probably no othe r
ship ever sailed the seas with such a
wealthy crew, for every man-jack aboard the
Golden Hind possessed a fortune. In
fact the y were altogethe r too rich, the
treasure aboard the ship being far
too weighty a cargo for the vessel
to carry safely on the long voyage ahead.
A portion of it had to be left behind, and although it would have been a simple
matter to have buried the excess
booty upon the island, the men had becom e
so drunk with riches that money meant nothing to the m,
and with a glorious disregard for treasure the y
hoisted forty-five tons of silver and plate from
the hold and dumped it into the sea, bellowing with delight and shouting ribald oaths
as the y watched the shining metal gleam in the
clear water as it sank to the bottom of the
little bay.
Then off the y
sailed for hom e by the longest way around, arriving safely in England
No doubt, within a few months, the sailors were as poor as ever and were thinking
most regretfully of the tons of
treasure lying on the bottom of the
ocean at far off Cano
Island the y were concerned it might as well have been on the moon.
Even in those days a man could not throw away
forty-five tons of precious metal without causing com ment,
and word of Drake's exploit was spread far and wide, until mariners on every
sea had heard of it and Cano Island was rechristened the
Island of Plate, as it has remained ever since.
But it was not until a century had passed that
any one thought of trying to recover any of El Draco's jettisoned treasure. It
happened that Captain Davis in the Bachelor's Delight, was cruising in the vicinity, and it Being Christmas Day, the famous buccaneer decided to celebrate the holiday by dropping in at the
Island of Plate and letting his men skylark and enjoy the mselves
ashore, hunting the wild goats and
gathe ring coconuts. But a heavy
swell was running, the small boats
could not land, and in lieu of shore leave the
crew spent the day fishing for the submerged bullion by means of tallowed leads.
Naturally this crude hit-or-miss method of salvaging treasure did not yield
very large returns, but it must have been quite thrilling and exciting to drop
a line over the ship's side and haul
it in with a silver piece of eight or a golden doubloon sticking to the tallow on the
lead. Altogethe r, som e fifteen hundred coins were thus salvaged before the Bachelor's
Delight hove up anchor and sailed away on more profitable business.
As far as known no one ever attempted to recover
the fortune in bullion that still
rested on the bottom of the
sea during the three centuries that
followed. Every treasure-seeking enthusiast was familiar with the presence of the
treasure and its history, but som ehow
a mere forty-five tons of silver, worth considerably over half a million
dollars even at the depreciated
value of the metal, did not appeal
as strongly to the imagination as
sunken treasure galleons or buried chests of gold. Yet the
chances in favor of recovering the Plate Island the
chances of finding buried hoards or salvaging wrecked plate ships. In fact as a
salvaging job it was very simple. The exact spot where Drake had jettisoned his
superfluous riches was known. It had been confirmed by Davis om e of the
coins. The water was com paratively
shoal, and the bottom hard sand, and, as one of my divers expressed it:
"a guy could scoop it up with a garden rake," once it was located.
Yet for som e
reason or anothe r no treasure
hunting expedition sailed for the Island of Plate Cocos
Island , the
legendary treasures of Old Panama ,
long lost ships in the Caribbean,
mythical hoards in the Bahamas the ir lure, and the jettisoned bullion of the
Golden Hind was passed by.
And the n,
when the world-wide depression
sharpened men's wits and caused the m
to rack the ir brains for means of
garnering every stray dollar, the
owner of a rattletrap little towboat thought of Drake's treasure reposing on the bottom
of the ocean, and only awaiting som e one to fish it up. He was an Englishman, but had
lived long in Spanish America and had made a fairly good living lightering and
towing in various ports on the west
coast of South America . But his finances were
at a low ebb, he had no money available for the
purchase of diving gear and equipment, and he had no experience in salvaging. But
he was a resourceful chap, and with odds and ends of junk and the aid of his engineer, a crude sort of dredge was
contrived and off he sailed for the Island of Plate
We can imagine with what suppressed excitement
and expectation the owner and crew
of the little towboat peered over the side as the
winches wheezed and rattled and the
dripping cable came reeling in and the
clumsy makeshift dredge broke the
surface of the water.
Swinging it inboard, the
men dumped the load of sand, shells
and writhing sea-worms upon the
decks, and the next instant wild
shouts, hurrahs and hysterical laughter startled the
dozing sea birds on the island's
shores. Embedded in the sand, blackened
with age and salt water or green with verdigris, were scores, hundreds, of
metal disks; roughly octagonal heavy slugs, irregularly round pieces-of-eight,
with here and the re a golden
doubloon or onza, brown and discolored, but gleaming dull yellow when the patina of centuries was scraped away.
And as the
excited men pawed over the mass of
sand and muck from the bottom
of the sea the y
disclosed more and more old coins, with an ingot or two of silver and a couple
of wrought silver candlesticks.
Again and again the
hom e-made dredge was dragged along the ocean's floor, and each time it brought up
silver and bullion, coins and objects of precious metal, until eighteen tons of
treasure had been salvaged.
Then, as the steam winch strained and panted and
the sheaves squealed and the cable came protesting in, som ething went wrong. Perchance the dredge caught on one of the
heavy silver bars which Sir Francis had cast overboard centuries earlier,
perhaps it fouled a rock or a portion of som e
ancient forgotten wreck. At all events, the
cable tautened and strained, the
winch groaned and slowed down, and the n,
with a report like a pistol, the cable
parted.
The glorious fishing was at an end. Without the dredge no more of the
treasure could be salvaged, and, as all knew, by the
time the y could reach port and
purchase a proper dredge and equipment and return to the
island, the officials would have
heard of the ir haul and would have a
gunboat on hand to take possession of any furthe r
treasure that might be salvaged.
It was a bitter disappointment to be forced to
steam away leaving over twenty-five tons of bullion still on the bottom
of the sea. Yet no one com plained, for after all it is seldom indeed that a towboat crew earns nearly two hundred
thousand dollars for a few days' work!
CHAPTER XII
Digging Treasures from
Ancient Graves
ALTHOUGH the
conquering Spaniards secured enormous amounts of gold, silver and precious
stones by looting the temples and
palaces of the Aztecs, the Mayas, the
Chibchas and the Incas, and obtained
millions by the ir treacherous
seizure and murder of Atahualpa, yet the y
actually walked over and erected buildings above far greater treasures than the y won by fire and sword and unspeakable
cruelties.
Rich as were the
living inhabitants of Peru om , however, gold had no
intrinsic value, far greater riches had been interred with the ir dead through countless centuries. As is custom ary with many races, the
Incas and the ir predecessors, the pre-Incan people, interred a person's most cherished
possessions, his regalia and ornaments, his ceremonial objects and his insignia
with his body, for the y believed in
a bodily resurrection and that when the
dead rose from the ir graves the y
would desire all the ir earthly
possessions. No one can say with any degree of certainty how many thousands of
years have passed since the earliest
of pre-Incan civilizations existed in Peru the Andes , on the high plateaus or "punas," in the trans-Andean valleys, on the
coastal deserts and the foothills
are countless tom bs, burial mounds,
graves and cemeteries containing incalculable millions in precious metals.
That Peru the
adjacent territories were densely inhabited in pre-Columbian days is proved by the vast numbers of burials of every period or era,
and in many places the re are layers
or strata of graves thirty to fifty feet deep. There are panthe ons covering hundreds of acres, large areas of
deserts where tens of thousands of bodies were buried, and huge mounds, som e several miles in length, over one hundred feet
in height and several hundred yards in width which are com posed
entirely of little cubicles of adobe bricks, each containing a dried and desiccated
body or mummy in its burial wrappings. Of course a very large proportion of the se ancient mummies are those of the peasantry, the
farmers, artisans, fisherfolk, laborers and porters who owned little or no
objects of gold or silver, no valuable gems, and whose garments were coarse,
plain and poor. But princes and priests, nobles and kings, governors and
generals—even the Incans the mselves, were mortal and died and were buried in the same cemeteries and mounds as the com mon
people. And in the graves and tom bs of the se
elect are marvelous objects wrought in gold and silver, with here and the re a huge emerald, a blazing sapphire, a
roughly-cut diamond or a string of priceless pearls.
No one can even guess at the
extent of the se ancient buried
treasures. For hundreds of years the
huacas* as the
graves and mounds are called, have been a source of revenue to the huaqueros
or grave robbers, and millions of dollars' worth of treasures have been taken
from the m.
Yet the huaqueros have made but little visible impression, and for every
grave that has been rifled, hundreds remain untouched.
* In
colloquial Spanish any object, such as pottery, vessels, weapons, ornaments,
etc., othe r than textiles, gold and
silver and human remains, is called a HUACO. Hence the
graves or mounds are HUACAS, literally the
Mothe rs of huacos, and men who dig
for huacos are Huaqueros.
Unfortunately, the
grave robbers work secretly and do not broadcast details of the ir "finds," for the irs
is an illegal profession, and in the
old days the Crown demanded a quinta or fifth of all valuables found;
and as a result, priceless works of art and museum specimens have been
destroyed or disposed of as bullion. As the re
are no records of how much treasure has been taken from
the burial places in recent years it
would be hopeless even to guess at the
total value. But in the days of the Viceroys it was a different matter, and in the musty old records and documents we may find
entries of the quintas paid to the
Crown by the more honest huaqueros, and in this way we know what
amazing fortunes have been obtained from
som e graves. Thus the one-time Treasurer of Trujillo, Don Miguel
Feyjoo de Sosa, in his VERDAD HISTORIA DE TRUJILLO, records the amounts paid into the
Royal Treasury as the King's quinta
or fifth of treasures found in the burial
places of Chan-Chan, the ancient
ruined capital of the Chimu
civilization. Don Miguel says: "In the
Royal Account Books it is recorded that Garcia Gutierrez de Toledo, paid, as
His Majesty's fifths, on various occasions during the
year 1576, fifty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty-seven castellanos in
gold from one Huaca not a league from the
city dose to the road that leads to
Guanchaco (Salavery). And in the year 1592, he paid Quintas amounting to twenty-seven thousand and twenty castellanos in gold on various figures
of fishes, animals, etc. that were taken from
the same spot (now known as the Huaca de Toledo). And it is popularly reported,
and com mon knowledge, that what was
taken was much in excess of that for which the
quintas were paid. In the year 1550, the
Cacique of Maniciche, Don Antonio Chayuac, who had been baptized a Christian,
and was a legitimate descendant of the
Chimu king, told the Spaniards of a
Huaca near the ruined palace called Regulo,
on the condition the y would give him a portion of any treasures
found, in order that he might use it to alleviate the
lot of the aborigines. The sum he
received for the treasure was
twenty-five thousand pesos, the
whole amount being forty-two thousand one hundred and eighty-seven pesos."
As the
gold castellano was equal to about five dollars in our currency, lucky Don
Garcia must have found treasure amounting to at least $1,213,175 during the year 1576, and $675,550 in 1592, while the treasure disclosed by the
heir to the Chimu throne netted the finders the
goodly sum of $210,935. And, as the
historian observed, we may be quite certain that the
finders did not report all that the y
obtained. When we remember that the
above records were for but three years out of centuries, and that only a small
portion of the graves about Chan Chan om e idea of the vast treasures that the
burial places in this one vicinity must contain. Ever since the Conquest the re
have been traditions of two vast treasures buried in the
Chan Chan mounds; one known as the Peje grande or big fish, the othe r
as the Peje chico or little fish, and as Señor Gutierrez hit upon the latter we may imagine the
stupendous value of the still
undiscovered "big fish" treasure.
These and many othe r
treasures buried in the deserts and the mountains of Peru were overlooked by the conquerors, which is fortunate for modern
scientists and museums, for the
present day huaqueros have learned that gold, silver and precious gems are not the only contents of the
graves which have a market value. A very large portion of the wonderful pottery and textiles, the ceremonial objects and weapons, as well as the gold and silver ornaments and utensils in the great museums, or owned by private collectors,
have been obtained from the huaqueros.
In the ir search for treasure in the graves, the se
men annually excavate many hundreds of burials, often without finding a single
mummy with anything of intrinsic value. But a large percentage have beautiful textiles,
rare or lovely pottery, bronze or wooden weapons, feathe r
ornaments, cloaks or head-dresses; tools and implements, or necklets and
bracelets of shells, stone beads or carved mothe r-of-pearl,
all of which are readily sold to the
curio shops in Lima and to collectors and museums. But as bootlegging huacos is som ewhat
risky, even if a very remunerative business, many thousands of scientifically
valuable specimens are cast aside and left to the
mercy of the elements. At
practically every mound and in every ancient cemetery in Peru one may see
hundreds, thousands, of skulls and dismembered skeletons littering the earth, many with the
desiccated skin and flesh still adhering to the
bones, and with the hair still
attached to the skulls, while
everywhere are the fragments of
textiles, the broken pottery, the sandals and garments, the
mummy-wrappings, slings, pouches and othe r
objects taken from the mummies and cast away by the
huaqueros in the ir
search for gold and silver. Even in and about Lima the front door, and in
cultivating the ir gardens the residents are as likely to dig up skulls as
stones. I doubt if the re is anothe r country on earth where the
inhabitants dwell happily and contentedly in the
midst of countless dead. But no one gives the
matter a passing thought, and the
people do not appear to regard bodies and bones of men and wom en a thousand or more years old in the same way as the y
would regard the cadavers of persons
who have died and been buried recently.
Roughly, I should say that not one grave in a
thousand contains any precious metal. When, a few years ago, the Avenida Progreso, which connects Lima with
Callao, was built, it cut through an immense mound, and for months after the highway was com pleted
the roadsides were littered with
human skulls, human bones, mummy-wrappings, broken pottery, wooden implements
and othe r artifacts ruthlessly torn
from the
tom bs and dumped aside by the steam shovels. Fully a thousand of the tom bs
or cubicles, built of adobe bricks, were thus destroyed, yet in all the work and among all the
ancient mummy bundles unearthe d,
only one or two small objects of gold and silver were found.
Even the
most expert and experienced huaquero, or the
most learned archaeologist, is at a com plete
loss when it com es to knowing
beforehand where a worth-while mummy is to be found. It is all a matter of
chance or luck, for the graves of the nobility and the
priests are outwardly indistinguishable from
those of the husbandmen and
fisher-folk; but in certain areas and among certain cultural strata, richly
adorned and valuable mummies are more numerous than in othe rs.
Thus, in the Lima Valley district,
it is rare indeed to find a body with anything of value buried with it, whereas
at Nasca, and more particularly at Parakas, nearly every body is wrapped in wonderful
robes and cloaks of marvelous textiles and feathe rs,
and is surrounded with beautiful pottery and often with numerous objects of
precious metals. On San Lorenzo Island , silver utensils, vessels and ornaments are found
in more than half of the graves,
while richest of all in gold objects are the
graves of the Chimus and Chavins in
northe rn Peru
Still it is all a gamble when it com es to digging treasures from
the se ancient graves. And because it
is a gamble it is fascinating, exciting work, even when one is searching for
archaeological treasures and gold and silver are of secondary consideration. As
an illustration of how much of a gamble it is, take my own experiences in Panama. I had discovered the remains of an unknown prehistoric civilization
and for over a year I had excavated the
site of the long-forgotten temple.
Dozens of graves had been opened, hundreds of
sculptured stone altars and monuments and thousands of specimens of pottery had
been secured, and over ten acres of the
area had been dug and examined foot by foot, yet the
only gold I had found was on the
tips of a beautifully-made nose-ring of bloodstone. Then, when the funds for the
work had been exhausted and the
museum abandoned the site, anothe r institution despatched an expedition to carry
on excavations where I had left off. And almost the
first grave the y opened with many
more the reafter, was literally
filled with golden objects! Never, probably, in the
whole history of archaeological excavations in America the r week I would have
found those wonderful graves so replete with golden objects. But such is luck,
Fate or whatever you choose to call it. Neithe r
should I com plain, for on anothe r occasion Lady Luck played into my hands in much
the same manner.
For nearly five years I had been digging and
delving in the prehistoric ruins and
cities of Peru the first
Pharaoh was born. I had mined mummies in the
desert sands, had burrowed deeply into burial mounds and had opened the strange bottle-shaped graves on rock-strewn
punas. I had been more fortunate than most. I had secured feathe r robes and head-dresses from
long dead Moujik chieftains, truly marvelous ceramics from
the mummy-bundles of the Nascan graves, wonderful portrait jars from the
cell-like niches of the Chimu burial
mounds; copper, bronze and silver ornaments, with here and the re a bit of gold—in fact nearly every object
known to or used by the Incan and
pre-Incan races.
But never had I disinterred a mummy rich in gold
and silver objects, and never had I found the
mummy of a royal Inca. By that I do not mean the
mummy of an Incan emperor, one of the
true "Incas" or rulers, but the
body of a person of royal blood a noble, prince or general, a priest or the governor of a province; and for that matter I
never expected to find one. Still, som ewhere,
buried in som e tom b or grave or mound, the re
must be mummies of Incan nobility even the
mummies of the supreme reigning
emperors the mselves. And as the Incan nobility, and practically all officials,
were members of the royal family and
were most gloriously adorned and arrayed in the
finest products of Incan loom s, and
decked with insignia and ornaments of precious metals, one of the ir mummies would have been an archaeological treasure-trove.
No one, however, had ever found one—unless som e
huaquero had brought one to light and
had stripped the mummy and said
nothing, and the re was little really
first-hand information as to just how the
Incan nobles were attired, the old
Spanish chroniclers having disagreed lamentably on such matters. Why no one had
ever found a royal mummy was a mystery. But the
fact remained, and it would have been a hopeless undertaking to have dug all or
even a small portion of the Incan
graves in the faint hopes of finding
a noble's body—one of the
"golden ears" as the
Spaniards called the m, because of the gold shells or ear-coverings worn by the m. This custom ,
I might add, had a most curious origin. One of the
sons of the Inca, Pacha-Kutik, lost
an ear in battle, and to conceal the
mutilation he wore shell-shaped gold coverings over his ears. In order that he
might not be conspicuous, and to com memorate
his bravery, the Incan princes all
followed his example and wore the huancos which in time became the recognized insignia of the
royal family. But as I said above, I never dreamed that I would be so supremely
fortunate as to find a mummy with the
golden ears. And the n Lady Luck
stepped in and played her little joke.
 |
| Hyatt Verrill's Find |
I had ceased field work and I was packing up my
collections preparatory to shipping the m
to New York , when a friend arrived from Cuba the specimens
and was most anxious to be present when a mummy was disinterred and unwrapped,
and to please him I offered to dig up a mummy or two for his especial benefit.
Near at hand, all about Lima the ir
contents that the huaqueros had long since abandoned all
hopes of finding treasure in the se burial
places. However, my friend wished merely to help disinter a deceased member of the Incan race; one mound was as good as anothe r for all contained mummies, and for his
satisfaction the dried and shriveled
body of a farmer, wrapped in the
cheapest and coarsest of textiles, would answer all requirements. So for
convenience I selected a small, obscure mound actually within the city limits. It was barely ten feet in height
and not over fifty feet in diameter, and the
few torn fragments of textiles and scattered bones, disinterred in years past,
indicated that it was the burial
place of the humblest caste of
husbandmen.
Selecting a spot which looked prom ising and had not been disturbed, we set to work
with picks and shovels. Dust flew in clouds, under the
blazing sun perspiration ran in streams, and our nostrils, mouths and eyes were
filled with the pulverized detritus
of dead bodies, bones, earth, decayed textiles and the
othe r ingredients of the mound. But presently a human skull was unearthe d. There was no sign of a mummy or even a
wrapping, and it was obvious that the
cranium had fallen from som e body that had been buried near the surface and had weathe red
away during the course of centuries.
Then, a few inches deeper down, we came upon a layer of leaves and reeds sure
indications of a burial beneath.
Carefully this was removed, revealing a few
fragments of animals' skeletons, som e
bits of cloth and two or three pottery jars. Then two more skulls—one a wom an's, the
othe r an infant's and a few bones. I
was, as the children say in Hunt the Thimble, "getting warm." Som ewhere below this stratum of leaves and trash was
a mummy; but whethe r that of a man
or a wom an, a farmer or a person of
high station, was impossible to guess.
To proceed farthe r
with pick and shovel would have been to court disaster, so on hands and knees I
com menced digging carefully with a
trowel. Presently I came upon a small, tightly-wrapped bundle containing the mummified body of a little Incan dog. The next
instant my trowel struck wood, and carefully scraping away the sand and dirt, I discovered four upright wooden
stakes with carved tops, that were lashed togethe r
with fiber ropes to form a quadrangle packed tightly with fine dry fibers.
My interest was now thoroughly aroused. No
ordinary peasant would have been buried so carefully and elaborately, I knew,
yet never had I found a burial of the
same sort, and with the utmost care
I lifted out the fiber. A cry of
delight and amazement escaped my lips. Beneath the
fiber were brilliant yellow and scarlet feathe rs,
and very cautiously and gently I lifted a gorgeous crown from its resting place on the
mass of hair that covered the skull beneath.
It was a regal head-dress and in a perfect state of preservation. But even
greater surprises were in store. Beside one of the
upright posts was a carved and painted wooden shield; beside anothe r a bronze-headed spear, while a magnificent
bronze battle-ax with staff intact was beside a third post. Little by little I
removed the masses of fiber that
filled the grave, until at last the mummy could be seen—a shapeless bundle wrapped
in heavy striped cloth.
But it scarcely could be called a mummy.
Practically no skin or dried flesh adhered to the
bones, and despite every care the
skeleton dropped apart when the
bundle was lifted from the grave. But the
wrappings were intact and as I com menced
unwrapping the bundle I hardly could
believe my own eyes. Never had I seen such a mummy! There were textiles of the rarest and finest weaves and patterns; ornate
pouches, bundles of quipos, woven
sashes and belts. And as each strip of cloth or each garment was removed, more
and finer objects were disclosed. There were implements of bronze and of wood, charms
or amulets, a carved wooden scepter or staff, tipped and ornamented with gold,
and about the bony wrists were wide
golden bands with raised figures of birds and the
sun god. Below the knees were golden
bands or garters from which hung
little silver jinglers tipped with scarlet feathe rs,
and upon the skeleton's chest were
three gold disks each embossed with the
tiger-faced, bearded god or Wira Kocha. At the
front of the headdress of golden-yellow
feathe rs, attached to a gorgeous llantu or head-band, was the golden symbol of the
rainbow, the royal Incan standard,
topped by a pom pom of scarlet and black feathe rs,
with a little gold sun hanging over the
forehead—the symbol of the borla
or fringe worn only by the royal
Incas. All or any of the se objects
and insignia would have proved the
mummy that of a noble or a prince, but, best of all, the re
were the gold huancos that in life had covered the
ears of the deceased. Their presence
left no doubt of my astounding luck. I had actually unearthe d
the mummy of an Inca! And I had
found him in a small insignificant mound which I had passed by scores of times
and had not thought worth the
digging.
To a professional huaquero, perhaps, my royal mummy would not have proved a great
treasure, for like most Incan gold work, his ornaments were of thin beaten
metal worth probably not more than a few hundred dollars as bullion. But
scientifically speaking, he was a real treasure-trove and of far greater value archaeologically
than dozens of ingots or bars of solid gold.
Yet in som e
ways my gold-decked mummy was not so remarkable a find as the magnificent gold jars, carafes, plumes, pins and
head ornaments on exhibition in the American Museum
of Natural History in New York City
Several years ago a Peruvian visited the museum and offered for sale a collection of
ancient gold objects, which, according to his story, were unique and not only
of great intrinsic value but of the
greatest archaeological interest. As the
exportation of antiquities from Peru the government
claims all gold taken from the graves, the
Peruvian naturally was som ewhat
secretive and loath to divulge the
manner in which the alleged collection
had com e into his possession. But
finding that the museum authorities
were not at all interested unless the y
learned the origin and history of the objects, he at last told the m
his story which, it must be confessed, sounded like som e
wild fictional tale.
Among the
army of natives employed upon his hacienda the re
had been an old Indian who for many years had been a trusted retainer and was
regarded more like a member of the
family than a servant. And when the
aged aborigine had been dying he had told his employer of a golden treasure in the distant hills and had given him minute
directions as to how to find it.
The planter and his sons were not, however, in
need of riches, the y were far too
wealthy to bothe r over hidden Inca
treasures and, moreover, the y felt
that in all probability the old
Indian had been wandering in his mind and that the
treasure, if ever it had existed, had long since been found. So the y paid no heed to the
fellow's tale and forgot all about it.
Then, several years later, the ir fortunes took a sudden change. A new political
party had arisen, rebellion had broken out, a new executive occupied the presidential chair in the
ancient Pizarro Palace in Lima, and, almost overnight, the
wealthy planter and his sons found the mselves
stripped of lands and almost penniless. It was the n
that the y recalled the dying henchman's story and decided to search for
the hoard of ancient gold whose hiding
place he had revealed.
According to the
Peruvian's story, the spot was a
bare sandy hillside and the re,
protruding from the surface or half-covered with sand were golden
jars, and vessels, plumes and gorgets of gold. But even with the gold in the ir
possession the three were scarcely
better off than before. They could not dispose of it in Peru the y had it the government would seize it, and the ir only hope of profiting by the ir find was to smuggle the ir
treasure out of the country and sell
it to som e museum or scientific
institution, for the y realized that
its archaeological value would be four or five times as great as its value for
bullion.
The amount asked for the
collection was, however, far in excess of its real value, and the tale seemed much too rom antic
and far-fetched to be true, so the
curator made a fair offer for the
specimens on the condition that a representative
of the museum should return to Peru and
accom pany the
treasure finder to the spot and
verify his story.
Arriving at the
locality where the Peruvian claimed the golden objects had been obtained, the scientist found a bare sandy hillside, with here
and the re little piles of charcoal,
but no signs of a former settlement, village, or even traces of burials. But as
the party spread out and walked
slowly along, one of the men
discovered the edge of a gold plate
protruding from the soil, and within a short time half a dozen
golden objects had been picked up. Why the
treasure should have been in such an unusual location was a puzzle. No one
could offer a plausible the ory to
fit the case, and the matter remained an unsolved mystery. But several
years later, while examining old documents in the
archives of Peru the
presence of the Chimus' golden
vessels. At the time when Pizarro and
his men were ravishing the coastwise
districts of Peru, a party of Spaniards looted a Chimu temple of its golden
ceremonial objects, and while returning to the
coast were attacked by a large party of the
infuriated Indians. Realizing that hampered with the ir
loot the y could not escape, the Dons buried the
treasure on a wooded hillside. But only a few of the
raiders survived, and I could find no record of any having returned to disinter
the golden vessels the y had hidden.
No doubt, years later, the
trees upon the hill were burned
leaving the piles of charcoal
marking the ir stumps, and the surface of the
earth, thus exposed to sun and wind, drifted away to reveal the buried gold. And as the
locality where the little party of
Spaniards concealed the ir booty
agreed with that where the old
Indian's tale revealed the hoard, I
feel that the re is little doubt that
the golden vessels and ornaments in the New York museum are those filched from the Chimu
temple centuries ago, and which were hastily buried by the
Spaniards in a vain attempt to save the ir
lives.
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