Diario las Américas Newspaper, October 28, 1956, Page 22

WITH A HASTE born of star. vation, the Spanish soldier ripped the feathers from the newly killed chicken. A few deft knife strokes and the bird was ready for the cooking fire that flickered at his elbow on the South American jun- gle floor. Suddenly, he stopped — his gnawing hunger forgotten. Amid the tiny pebbles and undigested corn that spilled from the hen’s gizzard, scattered> glints of green no bigger than dewdreps caught the soldier’s eye. Emeralds! Thus did the hen steer the Span- ish conquistadors’ search a step nearer one of the world’s great subterranean treasure hoards —Co- lombia’s Muzo emerald mines. The emerald, a variety of beryl related to the aguamarine, forms as a hexagonal crystal. Chemica- lly, it is a silicate of beryllium and aluminum. Chromium gives the crystal its color. But the quality that has hypnotized man through the ages is esthetic rather than chemical. The indefinable charm lies in the mysterious vivid-green depths of a perfect stone. Most precious of gems, the eme- rald runs through the lore of all ages and civilizations. Man has al- ways tooked upon it with awe and has ascribed to it mystical powers. Amulets of emerald have been re- vered as revealers of truth, ene- mies of enchantment, and cures for all manner of physical and men- tal ailments. In rabbinical legend the emerald was one of the four recious stones given to Solomon y- God. Pliny wrote that~ while other gems weary the eye, the eme- rald restores its strength. Ivan the terrible, whose treasure includ- ed esmeralds, called the stone “the enemy of uncleanness”. There is a U. S. woman who daily unlocks her store of emerals from a wall sape, spreads them on a table, gazes transfixed into their and then gently returns them to and then gently returns them to their hiding ptace. The most famous mines of the Old World were those of Cleopatra at Mount Zabarah in Nubia, which yielded the green crystals on which the Egyptian queen’s gem cutters carved her image. But the mines of Cleopatra never gave the world stones of the flawless beauty that is the hallmark of Colombian eme- Pégine 10 ralds. Although a few inferior ston- es are mined elsewhere, Colombia today dominates emerald produc- tion. The Chibchas, whose empire flo- urished in what is now Colombia before its conquest by Gonzalo Ji- ménéz de Quesada, burned the gems before their gods and stuffed their mummified chiefs with gold and emeralds. Chibcha legend tells of a large and beautiful emerald, born of an Indian virgin, which changed into a living infant and grew up to become a great chief. , During the conquest of Pert, the Spaniards learned that the Indians of Manta worshiped an egg-sized emerald as a goddess, whom they called Umifia. The Indian priests cannily suggested to worshipers that the “mother” emerald would favor those who reunited her with her scattered “daughters”. Thus the priests built the votive offerings into a vast store of emeralds — ripe for the plucking by the con- quistadors. But superstition robbed Pizarro’s men of much of their green booty. Fortunes in emeralds were shattered to dust under the hammer blows of those who believ- ed that only thus could genuine stones be distinguished from glass. Nor did the Spaniards ever find Umiiia. The first emeralds discovered by Jiménez de Quesada were found in Indian huts by foraging sol- diers in 1537 during the march from the Caribbean to the savanna of Bogota, Having wrung the loca- tion of their mines from the Chib- cha Indians, Jiménez de Quesada sent out an exploration party un- der Captain Pedro Fernandez de Valenzuela in 1538. Valenzuela re- turned bearing a few precious ston- es, enough to spur the Spaniards to assume operation of the ancient workings at Somondoco — today’s Chivor mines, high in the Andes. In 1544 the governor of New Granada, as Colombia was then called, sent Captain Diego Marti- nez to the tropical forest north of Bogota .to conquer the Muzo Indians and settle their territory. For years the warlike tribe held off the invaders, but at least it was beaten into submission. In 1559 the Spaniards founded Trini- dad de los Muzos as the capital of the newly conquered region. emerald fields had been spurred ‘by Juan de Penagos, a captain in Martinez’s army, who had found the first trace of emeralds in the Muzos’ territory when he opened an Indian tomb. But the Span- iards were wary of such incon- clusive proof. After all they recal- led, Cortés had found emeralds adorning the cloaks and sandals of Montezuma in Mexico. And Pi- zarro had sent the King four chests filled with emeralds snatched from the Inca of Peru. Yet they could find neither mines nor emerald veins in Peru or Mexico; subse- quent history showed that none had ever existed. The green jew- els of Montezuma and Atahualpa had flowed into the Indian rulers’ treasuries through trade with the Chibchas of the Bogota savanna. So a new fever of hope swept the Spaniards’ ranks when, dur- ing the closing days of warfare against the Muzos, Martinez’s starving men found in chicken gizzards what they considered de- finitive proof of emerald-bearing rock in the region. The fowl, spoils of the victory over the Muzos, were descendants of the first to come to the New Kingdom. The birds’ forebears had been brough in by the German conquistador Nicolas Federmann, whose chaplain, Juan Verdejo, had tended them lovingly during Fe- derman’s expedition ‘from Coro, far to the east on the Caribbean. Despite Verdejo’s vigilance, In- dians had made off with some of the hems, which eventually had passed to the Muzos. No less en- ‘chanted than man by an emerald’s glitter, the hens had gulped down the tiny .green pebbles while scratching their food from the soil. Now there was no doubt that the stone existed naturally in the Muzo region. But still the buried treasure covered by jungle and hidden in the heart of a hill, elud- ed the searchers. It was on August 9, 1564, that the fimal clue came to light. A Spanish soldier cantering across the plaza of Trinidad de los Mu- zos reined in abruptly as he saw a glint of green on the ground. Scooping up a handful of gravel flecked with green crystals, the horseman—half knowing what the cut ta indin ® By TED MORELLO Reprinted from AMERICAS, monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portu- guese, SS RR EY PN RTE ITR SS Indian: “What are these?” “Tap—y-Acar” the Indian replied in his own tongue. Green stone—emeralds! In some near-by hills the In- dian continued, there were many such stones, This place was the Cerro de Itoco on the encomienda of Alonsé Ramirez Gasco Manche- go, one of the conquistadors. Although Gasco is gemerally cre- dited with-the discovery of the Muzo field, the rich veins were first exploited by Captain Benito de Poveda another of the conquer- ors. By threats and cajolery, Po- veda and his companions induced some of the Indians to guide him to the. Itoco hills. The first- small samples convinced the’Span- jiards that wealth for them all lay beneath their boots. Today all Colombian emeralds except those taken from U.S.-own- ed Chivor are the property of the Government. Since 1946 the Go- vernment has excercised control of its holdings through the Bank of the Republic, a quasi-governn- mental institution. The Muzo mines are situated in the hot country of:the Carare Ri- ver, a tributary of the Magdalena, two days’ trip by road and trail north of Bogota. Chivor, a hun- dred miles northeast of Bogota, lies at the chill nine-thousand-foot level- of the Andes in a nearly inaccessible region broken by plunging canyons and sheer moun- tain walls. The nation’s only other important group of emerald - mi- nes, Cosquez, diseovered mear Mu- zo in 1646, has not been worked for years, though it has produced fine stones. Muzo mining is by the open-cut method. After the jungle is tsripped away, terraced benches like giant steps about 55 to 165 yards long, 17 to 22 yards wide, and a yard deep are hacked into the steep slope. Rows of workers armed with The continuing search for néwanswer would be—asked a passing crowbars and hoes chip at the rock SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1956 ° in search of the precios emerald 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, Colombia. 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 aly 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 Muzo 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-cea- 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 to no more than 5 per cent of the ,total loot. Bandits that for- merly operated almost uncheck- ed still harass mine operators from time to time. In the spring of 1955 a landslide uncovered a rich pocket of emerals on private pro- perty some twenty miles from the Chivor holdings .The discovery at- tracted a gang of thieves, who beat and routed the owner before they were chased off by army troops. But when the troops with- drew, the bandits returned and carried off the entire treasure. However, the major losses at both Muzo and Chivor have been traced most consistently to un- scrupulous concessionaires and abs- conding mine officials. In a re- port to the present Chivor owners in 1944, the late Peter W. Rainier wrote that during his 1928-31 ten- ure as mine superintendent un- der the former management, “a parcel of first-grade emeralds, the best lot ever shipped from the mine, disappeared in New York along with a company employee. I estimated the cut value of this parcel at around two million dol- lars.” Every effort is made at the mines to discourage theft. As soon as workers uncover a showing of morralla — the emerald mineral, which itself 1s of little value—the supervisor hurries to the strike, He watches carefully as the overs hanging rock wall is pried away and the emerals are picked out by hand. Should the work be ine terrupted by darkness before the pocket is exhausted, the supervie sor seals the vein with wet clay, on which he scrawls his signature. A cascade of rock and dirt from the terrace above is then poured over the workings. Next morning the supervisor is on hand to direct removal of the debris and to ex« amine the seal before digging is resumed. Once the mine has laid in a sufficient store of emeralds, the manager sends to Bogota for a government official, who weights and appraises the gems, places them in a hemp bag, and takes them to the Bank of the Repw blic under seal. There officials ree weigh and reappraise the gems and —in the case of the privately owne ed Chivor stones— automatically grant an export permit or releas@ —— i se Sr gn AAR NOR CIO gC Soe