Salt Lake Herald | 1900-05-03 | Page 11 | Shrewd Indians

i SHREWD INDIANS Work the Innocent Tenderfeet in South America New Orleans It II Is a common impression that the Central American Indian Is singularly honest and free from guile said a traveler who came up on the last banana boat but dont you believe a word of that story I recently made a amuleT muleT ack trip to the district in northwest Honduras my purpose being to th take a look at the famous fanous old eld Diggings on the Guayape river I a week or so In the region and was especially inter interested ested in the native Indians who live along the banks of the stream and who regard the placers as a sort of family pocket book from which they tey help as they please phase When a household needs anything that cant be hunted or fished in other words that tt t be bought at the women sally out with their bateas or bowls antI and pro wash as much gold as is required for the pur purchase purchase chase The Tue metal they secure in that k way is in ir the form of minute ml ute grains hardly ah iare as the head of ofa ofa a pin but they find little nuggets and that brings me to the point of ol my story Tie The day before I left I was at the principal store In the district talking to the proprietor or when a typical In Indian than dian shambled In and sat down dawn on the floor I attempted to question about the diggings and presently he untied a corner of his and showed me three small fantastically shaped nuggets which he said his wife had lately found It occurred to me Inc they would make interesting souvenirs mounted as or bangles and after some me haggling I bought the lot for 1 they weighed altogether some something something thing under a quarter ot of an ounce I Iwas Iwas was so disarmed by the apparent of the Indian that thai I never thought to examine the nuggets closely until I reached Port Cortez and then it hardly needed a look to see me they wore were not gold id at all but evi evidently dently a sort of or braes alloy A few days later I learned from an engineer who came down from the Guayape die dis district dietrict that my Indian friend was boast boasting boastIng ing that he had stoles stolen some yellow composition metal bearing front from a 2 stamp mill and melted up nip a fragment in a home made clay crucible In that way he produced his handsome nug nuggets gets gete If he be had put in the amount of labor at the placers he could easily have out 20 worth of gold what I call a natural aptitude for crookedness