The Sacambaya River is a river of Bolivia in the
La Paz Department. According to legend it housed a hoard of treasure.
History
![Picture of Cecil Herbet Prodgers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Picture_of_Cecil_Herbet_Prodgers.jpg)
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
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
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
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
adventurer born in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
who was living in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, 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.
See also
*
Amutara River
The Amutara River is a river of Bolivia in the La Paz Department.
See also
*List of rivers of Bolivia
* Sacambaya River
The Sacambaya River is a river of Bolivia in the La Paz Department (Bolivia), La Paz Department. According to legend it h ...
*
List of rivers of Bolivia
This is a list of rivers in Bolivia.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. Rivers longer than are in bold.
Rivers that reach the ocean Amazon Basin
** M ...
References
{{Reflist
* Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993.
Rivers of La Paz Department (Bolivia)