ATAHUALPA’S INCA GOLD
The Valverde Guide
Overview
In the 1850’s Richard Spruce while on an expedition to South America found a guide and map detailing how to find a vast treasure of the Inca King Atahualpa (1532) supposedly hidden in a cave, deep within the Llanganates mountain range of Ecuador.
In 1532, Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador began his conquest of the Inca empire. He sent an interpreter and a friar (Vincent de Valverde) to meet with the Incan king – Atahualpa in order to claim religious right to his lands. Atahualpa wasn’t accepting of this and the Spaniards captured him and his nobles.
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The Legend
Atahualpa, seeing that that the Spaniards valued gold made an agreement with Pizarro. He would fill the room he was being held in with gold and the next two rooms with silver in exchange for his release. (The total value of this ransom would be approximately half a billion dollars today.)
Before Atahualpa’s ransom could be collected Pizarro’s distrust for Atahualpa grew too much. He had feared that Atahualpa still had too much influence over the Incan warriors and as such he charged the king with crimes to tarnish his reputation and had the king executed. As such, no ransom was ever paid for the release of Atahualpa.
According to legend, the Inca General Rumiñahui was on his way to Cajamarca to pay the ransom before hearing of Atahualpa’s execution. After hearing this he sent porters to collect more treasures from the temple of the sun.
Rumiñahui is said to have then hidden all of the treasures he could so that the Spaniards could not get them and continued fighting against the Spanish, and though he was eventually captured and tortured, he never revealed the location of the treasure.
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The Treasure
During Richard Spruce’s (Famous English Botanist) expedition in the 1850’s to the Andes of Peru in search of the Cinchona tree he claimed to have uncovered a map made by Atanasio Guzman and what he called ‘The Valverde Gude’ leading to the hidden treasure of Atahualpa’s ransom.
It is said that the Valverde Guide is a handwritten account of the directions needed to be taken to find the treasures location wrote by Valverde after his Incan bride’s family led him to the treasure after which he is said to have become rich.
Newspaper Clipping from the Battle Creek Enquirer, Monday 31st May 1993, page 2, Battle Creek, Michigan
Barth Blake, a treasure hunter in 1886 left for the Llanganates in search of the treasure believing that he could follow the Valvede Guide, Guzmans map, and Spruce’s account of his expedition to the treasures location.
During Blakes journey he made maps of the area and wrote several letters to a friend back in North America claiming he had found the treasure and was bringing back what he could to North America to sell and raise funds for a second trip with help to retrieve the rest as it had been far too much for one man to carry.
However, Blake never made it back to North America. It is believed that he disappeared overboard while on a boat on route to New York.
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The Clues
Once in the town of Pillaro, 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 lake, made by hand, into which the ancients threw the gold they had prepared for the ransom of the Inca when they heard of his death.
From the same Cerro Guapa thou mayest see also the forest, and in it a clump of Sangurimas standing out of the said forest, and another clump which they call Flechas (arrows), and these clumps are the principal mark for the 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 ahead, having passed some cattle-farms, thou shalt come on a wide morass, over which thou must cross, and coming out on the other side thou shalt see on the left-hand a short way off a juc·l on a hill-side, through which thou must pass.
Having got through the juc·l, thou wilt see two small lakes called “Los Anteojos” (the spectacles), from having between them a point of land like to a nose. From this place thou mayest again descry the Cerros Llanganati, the same as thou sawest them from the top of Guapa, and I warn thee to 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 farther.
Following now on foot in the same direction, thou shalt come on a grat black lake, the which leave on thy left-hand, and beyoud it seek to descend along the hill-side 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 convenient place and pass over it. And having gone on a little way in the forest, seek out the hut which served tho sleep in or the remains of it.
Having passed the night there, go on thy way the following day through the forest in the same direction, till thou reach another deep dry ravine, across which thou must throw a bridge and pass over it slowly and cautiously, for the ravine is is very deep; that is if thou succeed not in finding the pass which exists.
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 (pyrites), the which leave on the left-hand, and I warn thee that thou must go round it in this fashion (The Valverde mark).
On this side thou wilt find a pajonál (pasture) in a small plain, which having crossed thou wilt come on a canyon between two hills, which is the way of the Inca. From thence as thou goest along thou shalt see the entrance of the socabon (tunnel), which is in the form of a church-porch. Having come through the canyon, and gone a good distance beyond, thou wilt perceive a cascade which descends from a offshoot of the Cerro Llanganati, and runs into a quaking-bog on the right hand; and without passing the stream in the 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, going round the offshoot of the mountain. And if by chance the mouth of the socabon 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 mayest see the “Guayra” (for thus the ancients called the furnace where they founded metals), which is nailed with golden nails. And to reach the third mountain, if thou canst not pass in front of the socabon, it is the same thing to pass behind 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 take to the beach, and thou wilt reach the canyon in such sort that, although thou seek to pass it, thou wilt not find where; climb, therfore, the mountain on the right-hand, and in this manner thou canst by no means miss thy way.
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Conclusion
Front cover for Lust For Inca Gold: An Intriguing True Story of Exploration, Discovery, Murder, Espionage & Treasure by Steven J. Charbonneau.
Many treasure hunters have gone in search of Atahualpa’s Inca Gold since Barth Blake but none have been able to successfully locate the treasure with many dying in pursuit of the fortune.
A well-researched and written book ‘Lust For Inca Gold’ by Steven J. Charbonneau goes into great detail about the history of Atahualpa’s past, his ransom, the treasure and the stories of some of the treasure hunters that have gone in search of this treasure legend.
The book covers a lot of information, most fascinating of all is the stories of the treasure hunters such as Barth Blake who claim to have found the treasure cache and give detailed accounts and maps for how to get to the treasure cave tucked away in the Llanganati Mountains.
According to the author, Steven J. Charbonneau, he spent more than two years forming Ecuadoran Explorations Inc and getting permits and terms negotiated agreed and approved with a Presidential Decree in order to recover the treasure from the mountains.
However, when it came time to sign these agreements the President changed their approach and determined that the expedition should go ahead without official documentation. A strange thing to do, Charbonneau became suspicious and fears that the treasure may be confiscated if found and that he’d meet his end in an unmarked grave eventually doomed the project.
As a result, Charbonneau wrote ‘Lust For Gold’ to tell his story and share his extensive research with others. Ultimately, the treasure remains unconfirmed despite claims of some who are said to have found the cave, taken what they could carry and sold or donated some of the finds to museums and private parties.
What do you believe?
Information for this article has been provided by various sources and are referenced here:
Primary Source: Treasure of the Llanganatis – Wikipedia
Bibliography:
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- De Betanzos, Juan; Hamilton, Roland; Buchanan, Dana (1996). Narrative of the Incas. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75559-8. Following Pizarro’s assassination, Dona Angelina married the interpreter Juan de Betanzos.
- Jackson, Joe (2008). The Thief at the End of the World. Viking. ISBN 9780670018536.
- Prescott, W.H., 2011, The History of the Conquest of Peru, Digireads.com Publishing, ISBN 9781420941142
- Eubel, Konrad (1923). HIERARCHIA CATHOLICA MEDII ET RECENTIORIS AEVI Vol III (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. pp. 184. (in Latin)
Other sources of information:
Francisco Pizarro: Wikipedia
Lust For Inca Gold: Amazon
Richard Spruce: Wikipedia
Ransom Room: Wikipedia
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Written By
ADAM L C
Director of Areas Grey
Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.
Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.
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It is impossible for me to describe the wealth that now lays in that cave marked on my map, but I could not remove it alone, nor could thousands of men….There are thousands of gold and silver pieces of Inca and pre-Inca handicraft, the most beautiful goldsmith works you are not able to imagine, life-size human figures made out of beaten gold and silver, birds, animals, cornstalks, gold and silver flowers. Pots full of the most incredible jewelry. Golden vases full of emeralds.
– Captain Barth Blake, 1886