Tisingal newpaper aticle from 1929

TISINGAL

LOST GOLD MINE

From the newspaper The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) Friday 30 August, 1929, page 15 of 32

Digitized by Doug Frizzle, 26 November 2013.

'Hidden away somewhere in the little-known interior of Panama,' writes Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill in the August 'Wide World Magazine,' 'lies the mysterious Tisingal, which, if we are to believe the cold records, was the richest gold-mine in an New Spain.'

A fascinatingly romantic story is that of Tisingal. Discovered soon after the Spanish Conquest, Tisingal was famed as the most fabulously rich of all the rich gold mines of the New World. A road was built to it, and a great dam and water-wheels erected to operate the crude mills. A town sprang up about it, and a chapel was built in whose tower was bung a bronze bell sent overseas from Spain. To protect it from the buccaneers and other enemies of the Dons, a fort was erected commanding the only road to the mine, and, with incredible labor great bronze guns were mounted behind the stockade. For many years the Spaniards drew vast fortunes from the mine. Countless mule-loads of gold were shipped to the river, carried down to the sea, and transported in stately galleons to Spain.

Thousands of Indian slaves toiled under the lash at Tisingal, and as they died off raiding-parties brought in new captives to take their places. But at last came retribution. The Indians far outnumbered the Spaniards. Suddenly and without warning they revolted. The Dons were overpowered and massacred to the last man, the buildings and fort destroyed and burned, the mine and road obliterated. By the time knowledge of what had occurred reached the outlying world nature had done her part, and the rank quick-growing tropic jungle had concealed every vestige of man's handiwork.

For years the Spaniards sought to re-discover Tisingal. But the Indians lurked in the jungles, the seekers were driven off or killed, and finally the mine became only a name and a memory.

Prom time to time, in the long years that followed, explorers have gone out seeking Tisingal, but few have returned, and none has been successful. Some died of fever, others fell to the poisoned arrows of hostile Indians, yet others met with unknown deaths, and to this day the lost mine remains hiddden from civilised man somewhere within the mountain forests.

From the site: http://trove.nla.gov.au where 88 references to "Hyatt Verrill" are unexplored 2013Nov 25./drf