in search of the pracios pockets, which occur irregularly in thin veins. Periodically, debris is washed away by a flooed rele- ased from, a gated reservoir above. One of the great treasures of the world is the crown of the Virgin of the Andes, formerly the property of the Cathedral of Po- payan, . In 1590, when an epidemic devastated the west coast of S. America, Popayan was miraculously spared. In gratitude the city ordered a crown made for its patron Virgin that should surpass any in the world in beauty and cost. Goldsmiths and lapida- ries toiled for six years to pro- duced the jeweled marvel. The mas- sive, pure gold is said to contain the largest collection of fine emer- alds in the world 453 gems lolaling 1,521 carats. In 1936, with papal permission, the Cathedral sold the crown to a U.S. syndicate for a price that has never been disclos- ed. However, in New York the Fifth Avenue jeweler (Oscar Hey- man and Bros.) that guards the crown for the syndicate values it at “several million dollars.” Another Fifth Avenue jeweler, Tiffany, owns a seventy-five-carat stone that once sold for sixty thousand dollars. Today it is offered as a “bargain”at twen- ty nine thousand. Modern production difficulties are less spectacular but no less harassing than the sixteenth-ce i- tury Indian warfare that afflicted the Spanish treasure hunters. At the top of the list stands emer- ald piracy, carried out in a va- riety of forms. A Bogota government official estimates that up to 90 per cent of all Muzo stones flow into world trade channels as contraband. And Mr. Pace says the Chivor company has lost between fifteen and twen- ty million dollars to emerald thie- ves since 1925. Mine workmen are responsible for some small-scale larceny. How- ever, Bank and Chivor manage- ment officials agree that such thefts are negligible, amounting OF to no more than 5 per cent of the total loot. Bandits that for- ¦ ' , merly operated almost uncheck- WITH A HASTE born of star raids. Although a few inferior ston- emerald fields had been spurred By ed still harass mine operators from ration, the Spanish soldier ripped es are mined elsewhere, Colombia ¦by Juan de Penagos, a captain in TED MORELLO time to time. In the spring of the feathers from the newly killed today dominates emerald produc- Martinez’s army, who had found 1955 a landslide uncovered a rich chicken. A few deft knife strokes tion. the first trace of in the Reprinted from AMERICAS, pocket of emerals on private pro- and the bird was ready for the The Chibchas, whose empire flo- Muzos’ territory when he opened monthly magazine published by perty some twenty miles from the cooking fire that flickered at his urished in what is now Colombia an Indian tomb. But the Span- the Pan American Union in Chivor holdings .The discovery at- elbow on the South American jun- before its conquest by Gonzalo Ji- iards were wary of such incon- English, Spanish and Portu- tracted a gang of thieves, who gle floor. Suddenly, he stopped menez de Quesada, burned the clusive proof. After all they recal- guese. beat and routed the owner before his gnawing hunger forgotten. Amid gems before their gods and stuffed led, Cortes had found emeralds they were chased off by army the tiny pebbles and undigested their mummified chiefs with gold troops. But when the adorning the cloaks and sandals Indian: “What are these?” troops with- that spilled from the hen’s and legend drew, the corn emeralds. Chibcha tells of Montezuma in Mexico. And Pi- “Tap—y-Acar” the Indian replied bandits returned and gizzard, glints green large carried off scattered' of of a and beautiful emerald, zarro had sent the King four chests in his own tongue. the entire treasure. bigger than dewdreps caught an virgin, However, the major no born of Indian which filled with emeralds snatched from Green stone;—emeralds! losses at the soldier’s eye. changed into a living both Muzo and Chivor have infant and the Inca of Peru. Yet they could In some near-by hills the In- been Emeralds! grew up to become great chief. traced most consistently un- a find neither mines nor emerald dian continued, there were many to Thus did the hen the Span- , During conquest Peru, scrupulous steer the of the veins in Peru or Mexico; subse- such stones. This place was concessionaires and abs- ish ’ search a step Spaniards learned that the the conding mine officials. In a re- Indians quent history showed that none Cerro de Itoco on the one of the world’s great of worshiped encomienda port to the present nearer Manta an egg-sized had ever existed. The green jew- of Alonso Ramirez Manche- Chivor owners subterranean treasure hoards —Co- emerald as a goddess, whom they Gasco in 1944, the late Peter W. els of Montezuma and Atahualpa go, one of conquistadors. Rainier lombia’s Muzo emerald mines. called Umina. The Indian priests the wrote that during his 1928-31 ten- had flowed into Ihe Indian rulers’ Although Gasco is cre- emerald, a variety beryl cannily suggested worshipers generally ure as superintendent The of to treasuries through trade with the dited with the discovery mine un- related aguamarine, forms of the der former to the that the “mother” emerald would Chibchas of the Bogota, savanna. Muzo field, the rich veins the management, “a hexagonal crystal. Chemica- favor who reunited were parcel of first-grade as a those her with So a new fever of hope swept first exploited by Captain emeralds, the lly, a of beryllium “daughters”. Benito best lot ever shipped from it is silicate her scattered Thus the the Spaniards’ ranks when, dur- de Poveda of the and aluminum. Chromium gives the priests built votive offerings another the conquer- mine, disappeared the ing the closing days of warfare ors. By in New York crystal its color. But the quality into a vast store emeralds threats and cajolery, Po- along with a company employee. of against the Muzos, Martinez’s veda and his companions induced that has man through ripe for the plucking by the I estimated the cut value of this hypnotized con- starving men found in chicken some of the guide the ages is esthetic rather than quistadors. But superstition robbed Indians to him parcel at around two million gizzards what they considered de- to the. Itoco hills. The first- dol- chemical. The indefinable charm Pizarro’s men of much of their finitive proof of emerald-bearing lars.” mysterious vivid-green green booty. small samples convinced the Span- Every lies in the Fortunes in emeralds rock in the region. iards effort is made at the depths of a perfect stone. were shattered to dust under that wealth for them all mines to discourage the The fowl, lay beneath their theft. As soon Most precious of gems, the eme- hammer blows of those who believ- spoils of the victory boots. as workers uncover a showing of rald runs through the lore of all ed that only thus could genuine over the Muzos, were descendants morralla the of Today all Colombian emerald mineral, ages and civilizations. has al- stones be distinguished from glass. the first to come to the New emeralds which itself is of Man except those taken from U.S.-own- little value—the ways tooked upon it with and Nor did the Spaniards find Kingdom. The birds’ forebears had supervisor awe ever ed Chivor are the property of the hurries to the strike. has ascribed to it mystical powers. Umina. been brough in by the German He watches carefully as the Since 1946 the Go- over- Amulets of emerald have been re- The emeralds by Nicolas Federmann, Government. hanging rock pried * first discovered vernment has wall is away vered as revealers of truth, ene- Jimenez de were found whose chaplain, Juan Verdejo, had excercised control and the emerals picked Quesada of its holdings through are out mies of enchantment, in Indian huts by foraging tended them lovingly during Fe- the Bank by hand. Should and cures sol- of the Republic, the work be in- for all manner of physical and men- diers in 1537 during the march derman’s expedition from Coro, a quasi-governn- terrupted by darkness mental institution. before the tal ailments. In rabbinical legend from the Caribbean to the savanna far to the east on the Caribbean. pocket is exhausted, the supervi- the emerald was one of the four of Bogota, Having wrung the loca- Despite Verdejo’s vigilance, In- The Muzo mines are situated in sor seals the vein with wet clay, stones given to Solomon tion of their mines from the Chib- dians had made off with some of the hot country of-the Carare Ri- on which he scrawls his signature. precious ~ by God. Pliny wrote that while cha Indians, Jimenez de Quesada the hens, which eventually had ver, a tributary of the Magdalena, A cascade of rock and dirt from other gems weary the eye, the eme- sent out an exploration party un- passed to the Muzos. No less en- two days’ trip by road and trail the terrace above is then poured rald restores its strength. Ivan der Captain Pedro Fernandez de chanted than man by an emerald’s north of Bogota. Chivor, a hun- over the workings. Next morning the terrible, whose treasure includ- Valenzuela in 1538. Valenzuela re- glitter, the hens had gulped down dred miles northeast of Bogota, the supervisor is on hand to direct ed esmeralds, called the stone turned bearing a few precious ston- the tiny green pebbles while lies at the chill nine-thousand-foot removal of the debris and to ex- “the enemy of uncleanness”. There es, enough to spur the Spaniards scratching their food from the soil. level of the Andes in a nearly amine the seal before digging is is a U. S. woman who daily to assume operation of the ancient Now there was no doubt that inaccessible region broken by resumed. the existed naturally in the plunging and unlocks her store of emerals workings at today’s stone canyons sheer moun- Once the mine has laid in • from a wall sape, spreads them on Chivor mines, high in the Andes. Muzo region. But still the buried tain walls. The nation’s only other sufficient store of emeralds, ths a table, gazes transfixed into their In 1544 the governor of New treasure covered by jungle and important group of emerald mi- manager sends to Bogota for a and then gently returns them to Granada, as Colombia was then hidden in the heart of a hill, elud- nes, Cosquez, discovered near Mu- government official, who weights and then gently returns them to called, sent Captain Diego Marti- ed the searchers. zo in 1646, has not been worked and appraises the gems, places their hiding place. nez to the tropical forest north It was on August 9, 1564, that for years, though it has produced them in a hemp bag, and takes The most famous mines of the of Bogota .to conquer the Muzo the final clue came to light. A fine stones. them to the Bank of the Rep* Old World were those of Cleopatra Indians and settle their territory. Spanish soldier cantering across Muzo mining is by the open-cut blic under seal. There officials re- at Mount Zabarah in Nubia, which For years the warlike tribe held the plaza of Trinidad de los Mu- method. After the jungle is tsripped weigh and reappraise the gems and yielded the green crystals on which off the invaders, but at least it zos reined in abruptly as he saw away, terraced benches like giant —in the case of the privately own- the Egyptian queen’s ,gem cutters was beaten into submission. In a glint of green on the ground. steps about 55 to 165 yards long, ed Chivor stones— automatically carved her image. But the mines 1559 the Spaniards founded Trini- Scooping up a handful of gravel 17 to 22 yards wide, and a yard grant an export permit or release of Cleopatra never gave the world dad de los Muzos as the capital flecked with green crystals, the deep are hacked into the steep •tones of the flawless beauty that of the newly conquered region. horseman—half knowing what the slope. Rows of workers armed with Is the hallmark of Colombian erne- The continuing searoh for ndw answer would be—asked a passing crowbars and hoes chip at the rock Página 12 HEMISPHERI SUNDAY, OCTOBER SB, 1914 ’