290
SUPPOSED HIDDEN TREASURE.
as concealing a treasure I had discovered, j o i n t l y with the missionary o f Carichana, amid the t o m b s o f the I n d i a n s . I t is asserted that the Jesuits of Santa FĂŠ de B o g o t a were apprised beforehand o f the destruction o f their c o m p a n y ; and that, in o r d e r t o save the riches t h e y possessed i n money and precious vases, they sent them, either by the Rio M e t a o r the V i c h a d a , t o the O r i n o c o , with orders to have t h e m hidden in the islets amid the raudales. These treasures I am supposed t o have appropriated u n k n o w n to m y superiors. The A u d e n c i a o f Caracas b r o u g h t a c o m plaint before the g o v e r n o r o f Guiana, and we were ordered t o appear in person. W e uselessly performed a j o u r n e y of o n e hundred and fifty leagues ; and, although we declared that we had found in the cavern only human bones, and dried bats and polecats, commissioners were gravely nominated to c o m e hither and search on the spot for the supposed treasures o f the Jesuits. W e shall wait long for these commissioners. W h e n they have g o n e up the O r i n o c o as far as San Borja, the fear o f the mosquitos will prevent them from going farther. T h e cloud o f flies which envelopes us in the raudales is a good d e f e n c e . " The account given by the missionary was entirely c o n formable t o what we afterwards learned at A n g o s t u r a from the g o v e r n o r himself. F o r t u i t o u s circumstances had given rise t o the strangest suspicions. I n the caverns where the m u m m i e s and skeletons o f the nation o f the A t u r e s are found, even in the midst of the cataracts, and in the m o s t inaccessible islets, the Indians long ago discovered boxes bound with iron, containing various European tools, r e m nants o f clothes, rosaries, and glass trinkets. T h e s e objects arc t h o u g h t to have b e l o n g e d t o Portuguese traders of the Rio Negro and G r a n d Para, w h o , before the establishment o f the Jesuits on the banks o f the O r i n o c o , w e n t u p to A t u r e s b y the portages and interior c o m m u n i c a t i o n s of rivers, to trade with the natives. If is supposed that these men sunk beneath the epidemic maladies so common in the raudales, and that their chests became the property o f the Indians, the wealthiest o f whom were usually buried with all they possessed m o s t valuable during their lives. From these very uncertain traditions the tale o f hidden treasures has been fabricated. A s in the A n d e s o f Q u i t o every ruined