Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1895 — GOLD BY THE HANDFUL. [ARTICLE]

GOLD BY THE HANDFUL.

But Clouds of Giant Mosqnitocs Keep Treasure Seekers at Bay. Gold in plenty may be found in the sands of tne Volador River, a stream of moderate volume that comes tumbling from the snow line of the Sierra de St. Martha, in South America, but, though the lowland region and the river bed where the precious metal abounds in fabulous quantities are easily accessible, the mosquitoes are so thick and terrible there that all attempts to rifle the sands of the gold have so far failed. Elisee Reclus, the celebrated French geographer, was the discoverer of this wonderful stream, whose waters sweep over sands that are literally golden. He told the news to the French Vice Consul at Rio Haeha, and this official obtained the concession of this Eldorado. He took with him when be set out an ingeniously constructed gauze tent of large dimensions. For two days he tried to live under Its shelter and watch the operations of his workmen, who tolled in the stifling heat, clothed in thick garments and protected by heavy boots, gloves and veils. At the end of the second day, however, both employer and employe with one accord gave up the struggle and retreated. The next to try to wring fortune from these auriferous sands was an Italian who obtained permission from the Vice Consul referred to above. The Italian started out with a party of six, who shared with him his belief, and so they took along no special protection against the insects. They endured for less than half an hour the awful torture and then fled. Yet there are human beings who can venture with impunity into this hell whose guardian demons are mosquitoes, and these are some of the savage natives of the mountains from .whose rocky steeps the river comes tumbling down. These savages, who are mosquito-proof, are rendered so by their bodies being covered with the scales of that awful disease, leprosy. The mosquitoes will not touch them. But neither gold nor the gauds of civilization will tempt them to labor, and there Is no human power, appsrently, which will drag them out from their rude caves on the mountain side and make them labor for the white man.—New York World.