Show in the days before the spanish con bluest the art of the jeweler flourished in various parts of mexico among tribes speaking distinct languages or dialects near the city of mexico in the pueblo of a town belll to prosperous existence and much modernized with its villas of well to do city people the cunning of the native aea elers attracted the at of the great conqueror her ban cortes always interested in the arts of the natives indeed in his letters to emperor charles V he writes of the workmanship of the decales a triumph of their craft to te sent to that monarch the recent discovery of a golden mask of rare design and exquisite bori manship near chilpan cingo the capital of the state of guer aero rero Is of great archaeological im the finding of this ul and costly object prompted prof william niven mineralogist and ex clorer now a resident of Guern avaca state of morelos to make some hinves into this interesting subject an 1 his efforts have been rewarded with much success he having in the past few months seen and photo graphed more than fifty gold objects which clearly prove that the indian goldsmith was a workman of great and thoroughly efficient in his art the finding of these costly relics together with the rich gold dincov eries made during the past year in southern mexico strengthen the belief among some students of mexican altory that the coveted sources of Monte gold treasures may be found within the bounds of this corn unknown region it Is related that when cortes de banded of the mexican monarch where his stock of yellow metal came rom Montez uina directed two ot his lords or caciques to accompany some of the spanish invaders to the local now believed to have been acau bately determined upon the return of the spaniards they reported to cor tes that the indians picked up the grains of gold in deep barrancas barr ancas or ravines that the gold was extremely scarce and that the gold country was about eighty leagues southwest of as the city of mexico was knon to the aztecs A glance at the map of mexico will show that the region must be close to where the recently discovered gold objects were found many archa eolo fists assert that the highest culture of aztec civilization was centered around the capital and that the in deans who lived outside of this circle were but semi barbarous tribes some living in caves and others leading a nomadic life this may have been the case when cortes first entered but that there lived a civilized people in southwestern ico ages before the time of monte zuma there is every reason to believe prof niven who has explored this region Is entirely confident of the correctness of this theory he says that tens of thousands ol 01 ruins of buildings which had been substantially built of stone to the northwest of were doubtless in the same ruined condl alon when montezuma nourished then as now little was known of the former dwellers in those houses the beautiful gold and jade amulets cop per and stone implements and gold dress ornaments found in and near these ruins in the state of guerrero appear to prove that there lived a mighty people in this mysterious land people as highly cultivated as the have been represented to be who were why have they utterly disappeared leaving hardly a trace behind thema prof niven a competent archa eol ogist as well as miner holds that this race passed away by the awful agency that created such havoc in jara and more recently in martinique if there are perchance any survivors left possibly traces of them may be found among the tribes who dwell in the region northeast of acapulco ico and onward to oaxaca there live today to day the alap alecos and amusgos who bave their own language and whom very few speak spanish in the land of the necos there Is a town called lalan del oro which Is said to be near a gold deposit of fabulous richness and aradi alon relates that the inhabitants of this section paid their tributes to the conquistadores in gold nuggets many stories are told of attempts made to wrest from them the secret of their gold region but to this day all efforts have been in vain A priest at one time very nearly succeeded in male ing the coveted discovery he had shown many acts of kindness to the poor indians and was held by them in great reverence all payments to jaim were made in native gold his ceaseless pleadings to be taken to the mine were met by steady fusars but one day the indians relent ed sufficiently to agree that he should go to the mine on condition that he made the journey blindfolded be tore departing the old padre tied a small bag of corn to his belt under his cloak and every lew steps of his horse he dropped a grain to the ground atter many hours over a rough broken trail the padre and his gu des arrived at the entrance to the gold mine where he saw the quartz fairly glistening with the yellow met al As he stood spellbound bontem plating the bonanza he joyfully congratulated himself that he had outwitted the indians by his cun ning ruse of scattering the corn but as he was felicitating himself one of the guides came up and handed him a bag saying padre you lost your corn but here it Is every grain on returning home he of course had no means of knowing where he had been the return journey having been made blindfolded on my recent trip to the pacific coast says prof niven I 1 rode over these mountains and camped near the town where it is said the priest started from I 1 found indications of go d over a wide area I 1 also know that the late governor of guerrero bought small quantities of gold nug SAID SA I 10 XAV E 3 IH STAT gets from his goatherds who live in that locality but my impression Is that if there Is a rich deposit of gold in that region it Is not likely that the indians who live there to day are aware of it the finding of gold by tho goatherds may have been at a distance from the really rich region |