The Legend
Among the sailors in the services of Spanish Habsburg there were talks about how to strike rich and leave their unmerciful live behind. One of the inviting quests was finding the treasure of Valverde. According to Rolf Blomberg (in his book „Buried Gold and Anacondas“), the story went as follows:Valverde had been a poor soldier who had lived in the town of Latacunga in now modern Ecuador, some time after Pizarro´s conquest of the Inca empire. He married an Indian woman, and soon after, in some incomprehensible manner, became possessed of ennormous wealth. One rumour said that the Indian woman´s father, who was chief in the neigbouring town of Píllaro, had taken Valverde to a place somewhere in the Llanganati mountain ranges where immense quantities of gold were hidden. Valverde returned to Spain with his wealth, but before he died he bequethed to the King of Spain a document – known as el derrotero de Valverde – indicating the way to the place in the Llanganatis where he had obtained his gold. The king immediately sent Valverde´s document to his officials in Latacunga and Ambato and ordered them to fit out an expedition to find the treasure. The expedition entered the Llanganatis under the leadership of the governor of Latacunga and a Father Longo. To begin with everything looked very promising, for they had no difficulty in finding the way with the help of Valverdes´s precise and detailed instructions. But then Father Longo disappeared from the camp during the night, without leaving a trace and in inexplicable circumstances. His companions searched for him vainly for several days in the surrounding woods and ravines, after which the expedition returned to Latacunga empty-handed. For unknown reasons, no fresh expedition was fitted out: and Valverde´s derrotero was deposited in the town Archives of Latacunga.
A transcript of the document has been found by the British explorer Richard Spruce and was published in 1861 in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Guide, or Route, which Valverde left in Spain, when death overtook him, having gone from the mountains of the Llanganati, which he entered many times and carried off a great quantity of gold; and the King commanded the Corregidors of Tacunga and Ambato to search for the treasure: which order and guide are preserved in one of the offices of Tacunga
Placed in the town of Píllaro, ask for the farm of Moya, and sleep a good distance above it; and ask there for the mountain of guapa, from whose top, if the day be fine, look to the east so that thy back be towards the town of Ambato, and from thence thou shalt perceive the three Cerros Llanganati, in the form of a triangle, on whose declivity there is a green lake, made by hand, into which the ancients threw the gold that they had prepared for the ransom of the Inca when they heard of his death. From the same Cerro Guapa thou mayest also see the forest, and in a clump of Sangurimas, standing out of the said forest, and another clump which they call Flechas, and these clumps are the primcipal mark, for which thou shalt aim, leaving them a little on the left hand. Go forward from Guapa in the direction and with the signals indicated, and a good way ahaed, having passed some cattle-farms, thou shalt come on a wide morass, which thou must cross, and coming out on the other side thou shalt see on the left hand a short way off a Jucál, on a hill-side, through which thou must pass. Having gone through the Jucál, thou will see two small lakes called Los Anteojos from having between them a point of land resembling a nose.
From this place thou mayest again descry the Cerros Llanganati, the same as tou sawest them from the top of Guapa, and warn thee that tou must leave the said lakes on the left, and that in front of the point or nose there is a plain, which is the sleeping-place. There thou must leave thy horses, for they can go no further. Following now on foot in the same direction, thou shalt come on a great black lake, whichthou must leave on the left hand, and beyond it thou shalt seek to descend along the slope of the hill in such a way that thou mayest reach a ravine, down which comes a waterfall, and here thou shalt find a bridge of three poles, or if it do not still exist thou shalt put another, in the most convedient place, and pass over it. And having gone a little way int forest seek out the hut which served to sleep in, of the remains of it. Having passed the night therego on thy way the following day thorough the forest in the same direction, till thou reach another deep dry ravine, across which tou must throw a bridge and pass over it slowly and cutiously, for the ravine is very deep; that is if thou succeed not in finding the pass by which it may be crossed. Go forward and look for the signs of another sleeping place, which I assure thee thou canst not fail to see, in the fragments of pottery and other marks, because the Indians are continually passing along there. Go on thy way, and thou shalt see a mountain which is all of Margasitas the which thou must leave on the left hand, and I warn thee that thou wilt have to go round it thus:
On this side thou wilt find a Pajonal in a small plain which having crossed thou wilt come on a strait passage betweenn two mountains, which is the way of the Inca. From thence as thou goest anolng thou shalt see the entrance of the socabón which is in the form of a church porch. Having come through the passage and gone a good distance beyond, thou wilt perceive a cascade which descends from an offshoot of the Cerro Llanganati and runs into a Tembladal on the right hand; and without passing the stream inthe said bog there is much gold, so that putting in thy hand what thou shalt gather at the bottom is grains of gold. To ascend the mountain, leave the bog and go along to the right, and pass above the cascade, gouing round the offshoot of the mountain. And if by chance the mouth of the socabón be closed with certain herbs which they call Salvaje, remove them and thou wilt find the entrance. And on the left hand side of the mountain thou will see the Guayra for thus the ancients called the Furnace where they funded metals, which are studded with gold. And to reach the third mountain, if thou canst not pass in front of the socabón, it is the same thing to pass at the back of it, for the water of the lake falls into it.
If thou lose thyself in the forest, seek the river, follow it on the right bank, lower down to the beach, and thou will come on a deep ravine such that although thou seek to passit thou wilt not find where; climb therefore the mountain on th right hand and in this manner thou canst by no miss the way.
Villavicencio
Richard Spruce was not the only one writing about treasure in these mountains. Manuel Villavicencio wrote in 1858 in his book GEOGRAFIA DE LAREPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR, which accompanied his map:Bobonaza – This river arises from the hillsides of the cordillera de Llanganate, of lake Bobonaza, which is supined to be the deposit of great quantities of gold where the Indios threw it into when they heard about the death of the Inca Atahualpa.
On modern maps, the source of Bobonaza is not in the Llanganati ranges. And there is no lake Bobonaza.
