Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/455

Rh search is going on. It is well known that when Guatamozin was finally defeated by the Spaniards, the immense treasures which he was supposed to possess could not be found; and that the pious conquerors roasted him at a tree still standing at Chapultepec, to make him reveal their place of concealment.

"This is not a bed of roses," is said to have been his quiet remark as they grilled him, but he never let up, and the secret—if there was any—died with him. Now, they have what purports to be the will of Guatamozin, in the Aztec language, setting forth the secret of the deposit, alleging that it was in the ground near where the last fight took place on the outskirts of the City of Mexico, and providing that his descendants should never reveal it nor search for the treasure until the power of the Spanish should be broken, and even then, that no Spaniard should ever be allowed to profit by it. Now, when the power of Spain on the continent of America is broken, and the Church she founded in Mexico, in blood and outrage, has lost, or is fast losing its hold on the people, a descendant of Guatamozin produces the will, and directs the search for the long buried treasure. I found that Col. Enrique Mejia and other ripe scholars in whose judgment I would implicitly rely, believed the will to be genuine, and that the treasure was really buried in the vicinity of the spot where the search is now being made, though they think the chances of the search being successful, after the lapse of centuries and the changes which have taken place in the locality, as extremely problematical, to say the least, and they do not take stock in the enterprise.

We had heard much of the religious bigotry and fanatical hatred of foreigners—especially Americans—