The Sacambaya River is a river of Bolivia in the La Paz Department. According to legend it housed a hoard of treasure.

History

According to legend, the Sacambaya river housed a hoard of

treasure Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions leg ...

hidden by

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missionaries in 1745 before the expulsion from the area. Cecil Prodgers, a

Boer war The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

veteran, claimed to have learned about these legends from a document given to him by the family of an elderly Jesuit priest. According to the document, the gold could be found on a steep hill covered with a dense forest. It was supposedly marked with an egg-shaped stone. Underneath this hill, it was said that there was a cavern which hid the treasure. The document stated that it took five hundred men two-and-a-half years to dig this cave, and the gold itself was guarded with a strong enough poison to kill a

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

of men. He attempted to excavate the site in 1905, however this attempt failed due to the rainy season preventing work. He returned the next year in 1906, and attempted to excavate the site using

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

. He had to abandon the attempt due to medical symptoms caused by the inhalation of the fumes. Prodgers wrote a book describing his experiences in Bolivia, entitled: ''Adventures in Bolivia''. Dr. Edgar Sanders, a

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adventurer born in

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who was living in

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, became obsessed with finding this treasure. Sanders initially learned about the legend from a document given to him by Prodgers. Sanders claimed that he had located the site near a former Jesuit colony known as

Inquisivi Inquisivi is the capital of the Inquisivi Province in the La Paz Department, Bolivia. It was officially named on November 2, 1844. Residents of Inquisivi are called Inquisivenos. On November 2, 1884, General Narciso Campero officially announc ...

. He also claimed to have found hundreds of skulls nearby, which according to the local natives, belonged to native slaves who worked to dig the tunnels and were executed to prevent them from spreading knowledge of the gold. Sanders contracted a German scientist named

Charles Gladitz Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

to confirm that gold was present at the site. Afterwards, Sanders made two failed expeditions to find the treasure in 1925 and 1926. He would contact

Alan Hillgarth Captain Alan Hugh Hillgarth (1899–1978) was a British adventure novelist and member of the intelligence services, perhaps best known for his activities in Spain during and after the Spanish Civil War. Hillgarth appears as one of the actual hist ...

, a British intelligence agent and adventure novelist, in 1928. Sanders worked with Hillgarth to form the Sacambaya Exploration Company, with the goal of finding the treasure. They recruited 24 men for their mission, and took with them 40 tons of equipment for their expedition. They arrived at the region in March, and found it to be a dangerous area with insects,

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joi ...

, extremely hot temperatures at day, and extremely cold temperatures at night. This expedition had been abandoned by November, and the company had been disbanded by 1930. In the 1960s, Mark Howell and Tony Morrison made another attempt to excavate Sacambaya. They arrived with "field distortion locating equipment," which is a device similar to a metal detector. Howell and Morrison only found a trapezoidal copper plate, which potentially originated from the Sanders expedition. After a downpour of rain Howell and Morrison canceled their expedition.

References

{{Reflist * Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993. Rivers of La Paz Department (Bolivia)

History

See also

References