Hi again Steve, First a couple of titles; "Mystery, Mayhem and Madness in Territorial New Mexico" by Bob L'Aloge put out by the Yucca Tree Press. "Buried Treasures of the American Southwest" by W.C. Jameson put out by August house. The one by Jameson is a good one if you care to learn a bit about El Chato. Anyway, who was La Rue? In the latter part of the eighteenth century Felipe La Rue, the son of a wealthy French nobleman, joined the Franciscan monastery. Given the wealth and position of his family, it seems odd that LaRue would take vows of poverty, however, Felipe had a history of rebelling against established authority, and his becoming a monk was a way of rebelling against the wordly status of his family. Once deep within the framework of the churh, Felipe continued to resent authority and continually challenged the precepts of his religion. Believing that Felipe would do well to serve some time in the primitive conditions of the New World, his superiors transferred him to Mexico and assigned him to menial duties in the field. Soon Felipe began once again to challenge the established policies of the church. The padres, in an attempt to counteract his dissidence, tried everything from whippings to forced labor, but the more punishment they meted out, the more volatile the young monk became. After a time LaRue convinced a number of other monks and several indian converts to join him on a journey to the north to establish a colony where the members could worship and live as they wished without strict rules and regulations of the mother church monitoring their every move. They built a colony around Chihuahua but there was a bad drought and they were suffering and dying. And the story goes from there about how they came across a dying soldier who told them of the mountain with the gold. They located it and built a new colony and mined the gold. After a time the church grew curious to know of his whereabouts. They sent Maximo Milliano to search for the LaRue colony. Milliano learned from indians in Mesilla of a colony up north who traded gold for supplies. Milliano located the colony and demanded they turn over the mine to the church. He was turned away by LaRue. No one knows for sure what happened next except that LaRue fearing the return of the church probably concealed the mine and later they were massacred. Milliano would be a good lead. Since the Spanish church required detailed records kept of all goings on, Milliano probably kept a written account of everything he did as far as La Rue goes and that would likely be archived now. Another clue would be the priest LaRue wrote to in Madrid, Spain. His name was Father Rheuschone and the letter closes with these words-"In seven languages, seven signs, and languages in seven foreign nations, look for the seven cities of gold. Seventy miles north of El Paso del Norte in the seventh peak of Soledad, these cities have seven sealed doors, three sealed toward the rising of the Sol sun, three sealed toward the setting of the Sol sun, on deep within the Casa del Cueva de Oro, high noon, and receive health, wealth, and honor..." So, seventy miles north of Paso del Norte puts it well north of Las Cruces and the Organs right where Victorio is. Victorio peak was also known as Solado many moons ago. Here is a clue I'll bet almost no one has heard of before until now, but I'd like to know if anyone knows the translation of this word-"Boveda". It was found carved into stone near the peak where someone removed a few bars of hidden gold.

• Re: Where was he from? John London 18:30:11 12/16/99 (0)