Drake
Curtis- You very well may be right. Some things to consider- When Drake ambushed the mule train (190 mules laden with treasure) in April of 1573, he was faced with a big problem of what to do with all the treasure- While estimates vary, depending on whether you want to rely on the Spanish, French, or English (Drake) records, Drake, his men and the Cimmarones were greatly challenged with carrying off the estimated 1/2 ton of gold, let alone another 15-30 tons of silver bars they had secured. They reportedly had a couple of hours to bury/hide as much of the treasure as they could on/near the Camino Real in the rivers, under roots, in the hills, etc. They planned on returning when they could to recover.
The Spanish returned with reinforcements and Drake and the majority of his men escaped with what they could (probably most of the gold). They Spanish then attempted to dig up as much of the treasure as they could find (with the help of one of Drake's men whom they tortured) but the thing is that they had no idea how much of the treasure was buried or where all of it was buried/hidden by Drake and his men (a mule train of 190 mules is very long so the thinking is that no 1 man could know where all of it was buried along the trail). That said, the Spanish did their best and definitely dug up a lot of it, but they definitely didn't recover it all. According to Drake's account, a few of Drake's men returned a couple weeks later and dug up some of the treasure that the Spanish missed. But then Drake's men didn't have the luxury of having too much time at the site so- they went in, found some treasure in the places they remembered, and then left quickly. They likely weren't able to check all the places along the trail since only a few of Drake's men returned to search, they had limited time, and likely just looked for any remaining buried gold.
So I tend to agree that there are probably some missed bars of silver remaining somewhere along the Camino Real where the mule train robbery happened. The land is mostly cattle grazing land nowadays. The thing is any remaining bars of silver have been buried for 440 years and undoubtedly, have sunk due to the incredibly humid, tropical weather in these parts. So a standard MD like an AT PRO probably wouldn't work when any remaining bars could be 5+ feet underground. Plus, many of the bars were buried in the rivers along/near the trail at that time and quite probably, the rivers have altered and changed their course over the years.
Even though it's like looking for the proverbial "needle in a haystack" it's quite an interesting adventure to search for a documented buried treasure and every time we go back, we have a blast. Really brings history alive.
