You Found It - Well Done!!!
Hint: The Cave for the Brave has an Animals name attached to it!
Jones
Edit 10.12am Friday April 8: J.A.A: your next question would probably be, do i know were it is? Answer: My research hasn't extended that far, and as some people know I stopped researching this topic for quite awhile.
Jones
IA.Jones-
Where is this elusive cave?! Well, I couldn't give exact coordinates of course, but according to Father Gregorio San Ramon, who was the Prefect of Callao in 1778 and who's brother was one of the last Jesuits to leave Plazuela, he left his brother the following description of the treasure location:
"There is a hill on the left bank of the Rio Sacambaya opposite the Monastery of Plazuela. It is steep and covered with dense forest. The top flat and with long grass growing. In the middle of the long grass there is a large stone shaped like an egg, so big that it took 500 Indians to place it there. If you dig underneath this stone for five cordas, you will find the roof of a large cave which it took 500 Indians two and a half years to hollow out. The roof is twenty-four cordas long and there are two compartments and a long narrow passage leading from the room on the east side to the main entrance two hundred cordas away. On reaching the door, you must exercise great care in the opening. The door is a large iron one and inside to the right, near the wall, you will find an image of the Madonna, made of pure gold, three feet high, the eyes of which are two large diamonds; this image was placed there for the good of mankind.
If you proceed further along the passage, you will find in the first room 37 heaps of gold, and many gold and silver ornaments and precious stones. On entering the second room, you will find in the right hand corner a large box clamped with iron bars; inside this box are 90,000 duro reales in silver money and 30 bags of gold. Distributed in the hollows on either side of the tunnel and in the two rooms are, altogether, 160 heaps of gold, of which the value has been estimated at 60 million duros reales.
Great care must be taken on entering these rooms, as enough poison to kill a regiment of the King has been laid about. The walls of the two rooms have been strengthened by large granite blocks of granite; from the roof downwards the distance is five cordas more. The top of the roof is portioned off in three distinct esplanades and the hole has been covered for a depth of five cordas with earth and stone. When you come to a place twenty feet high, with a wall so wide that two men can easily ride abreast, cross the river and you will find the monastery, the church, and other buildings."
That about narrows down the location now doesn't it??!!
This was the information given to Cecil Prodgers who then, with the help of a grandson of one of those who hid the treasure, found how President Melgarejo had searched Negro Muerto for the treasure years earlier but was on the wrong side of the River Sacambaya. Supposedly, the actual location is on a hill called Caballo Cunco.
Prodgers, utilizing many locals, started digging after having found the egg-shaped rock. The digging was difficult and the locals were afraid that they were doing an affront to God. On one occasion, after sinking some bamboo into the dig, noxious fumes were emitted. By the end of 1907, Prodgers was nowhere near the depth he needed to be at. He returned to England to gather a workforce a little more skeptical. He was never able to return.
Prodgers, who had later on made a deal with Dr. Edgar Sanders, gave Sanders all the details that he had previously used and Sanders set out with a small group in 1925 to continue digging. At 900 he found another stone. This was 618 feet by 128 feet and a perfect rectangle. The stone is now referred to as the Square Heap Stone. Sanders believed that the treasure was under this stone, that the stone was the roof of the treasure room. Near there, he found a tunnel. He started clearing the tunnel. As they progressed, they came across a silver crucifix attached to a board. Four feet later they encountered a wall made of stones. In the wall was a hole and in the hole was a wooden box. The digging stopped as all gathered around. Sanders removed the box and it crumbled in his hands. He was left holding a piece of parchment. With the locals and his group from England around him in the tunnel, finally at the wall that they believed the treasure room was behind, he read aloud from the parchment:
"You who reach this place withdraw. This spot is dedicated to God Almighty and the one who dares to enter, a dolorous death awaits him in this world and the eternal condemnation in the world he goes to. The riches that belong to God Our Master are not for humans. Withdraw and you will live in peace and the blessing of the Master will make your life sweet and you will die rich with the goods of this world. Obey the command of God Almighty our Master in life and in death. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen."
The Indians refused to continue and with the rainy season now upon them, Sanders was unable to continue on his own and returned to England. He did end up putting together a group of new investors and this story does go on.
HOWEVER, who's to say it even matters? The one detail that I doubt Prodgers ever told to Sanders was the fact that at one time, Prodgers discussed his find with a Cornish miner named Tredennick. Tredinnick searched the area from 1921 to 1927, digging numerous tunnels in the area and, like any other moronic greedy "gotta-have-it-now" hunter, he decided to use dynamite (of all things) on one of the tunnels which ended up setting off an internal upheaval that lasted for an hour and a half!!!
Was this THE treasure cave filling itself in with earth, stone, etc.?
I'm guessing if there is a cave/cavern/room out there filled with treasure, it would be a HUGE undertaking and would require an extreme amount of heavy machinery to properly excavate the area and, as the picture of that area's terrain that Amy posted in a previous post shows, there really isn't a solid way to get machinery out there.....certainly without being noticed, at least.
There is much more to this tale is Cecil H. Prodgers book which you can download for free on the Internet Archive.com website.
All the best-
Justin