Greetings,
The lost city Fawcett referred to simply as "Z" has supposedly been found fairly recently, can't recall where I read about it though. The small black inscribed stone Fawcett had found showing a rather Mediterranean-looking "priest" figure has fascinated me for some time.
We have many folks today who deny that the Jesuits were ever involved with mining of any kind during their missionary work of the Colonial period, so we have to include a "caveat" warning with any story of a lost Jesuit treasure/mine. I have to admit that I also was convinced BOTH ways in this question - at first believing virtually ALL of the old tales to be gospel truth, later to become convinced that NONE of the old tales were true, ALL had been simply made-up-tales to titillate and entertain the hearers/readers, but have since come to the conclusion that SOME of the tales are based on truth while others are either mis-attributions or outright falsehoods. Taking this position certainly puts one in a "hot seat" in any discussion of Jesuit treasures/mines since it is not in agreement with the idea that ALL of the tales are true, nor is it in agreement with the position that NONE of the tales are true. Truth is very frequently
stranger and
far less "black and white" than many folks would prefer.
I did not start this thread with the intention of furthering the debate around Jesuit treasures, but it is pretty much un-avoidable whenever the topic is brought up. Since our defenders of the Jesuits have been relatively quiet of late, I will add a bit here and allow time for the various statements to be refuted etc.
Whether the tales of Jesuit treasures and mines are true or false, it is a certainty that the governments of England were convinced that the Jesuits were directly involved in secretly mining precious metals and surreptitiously shipping the wealth out of the New World to the Vatican; it is also a certainty that the governments of Spain and Portugal also became convinced that this was the case, and we can take note that the Jesuits were expelled:
- from Portuguese colonial possessions...1759
- from French colonial possessions...1764
- from Spanish colonial possessions...1767
Finally even the Pope saw that the Regimini Militantis, Society of Jesus/Jesuits, was an order that was out of control and clearly needed to be suppressed. Pope Clement XIV in 1773 issued a "brief" (an official order) which directly ordered the Society of Jesus to be
disbanded forever and their possessions turned over to other religious orders. The Jesuits also clearly refused to obey the orders of the Pope (despite their own oath of obedience to the Pope) and continued to work in various places where they had not been expelled, for instance founding Georgetown University in Maryland in
1789 - and remember the Jesuits were not restored to being a lawful Order until August of 1814 (by order of Pope Pius VII) so we need not debate whether ALL of the Jesuits were fully obedient to the rules of their Order nor to their oaths - the facts clearly state otherwise.
Of course the Jesuit apologists claim that
all of the expulsions of the Society of Jesus were totally and utterly un-founded. A little research into the various rebellions within these colonies however shows that old saying "where there is smoke,..." may well be true and the expulsions might have been justified! Just look at the actual accounts (originals) of these historical uprisings such as the Pimas, Opatas, Yaquis etc in Mexico/Arizona as well as (1734) Baja California and even though the various complaints of the Indios might seem unfair or un-justified to the Jesuit missionaries (and their modern apologists) they were quite
justified in the eyes of the Indios.
Without un-chaperoned access to the archives of the Society, we can never prove either their innocence nor guilt. We can take note of the circumstantial evidence, for instance in 1749 the Jesuits numbered 22,589 members, of whom 11,293 were priests - and we can surmise that most (if not all) of the illicit mining and smuggling activities would have been the work of the NON-priests, so they were hardly short of manpower; plus it is well known that the Jesuits did make use of slaves and forced labor, not only in their ranches and farming activities but in mining as well. (The apologists of course deny all of this.) That the Jesuit missions were in many cases highly successful commercial ventures can be seen in the records of what was seized from them on their expulsions, for instance in Paraguay, at the date of the expulsion the number of the cattle was 719,761; oxen, 44,183; horses, 27,204; sheep, 138,827 which amounts to a considerable fortune in livestock. (*Inventarios de los bienes hallados a/ la expulsion de los Jesuitas', Francisco Javier Brabo, Madrid, 1872
All of this might sound "torrid" or even "vulgar" to our modern sensitivities, but it is well to keep in mind that
at the time, it was
not illegal to own slaves or make use of forced laborers, that all missions (of ALL religious orders)
had to be profitable in order to support the people they were serving, and that (at least in some cases) the Jesuits appear to have been working mines FOR the monarchs as they were among the few people the King could put trust in to work diligently and honestly. The various incidents which led to Indian revolts such as whippings etc are viewed today as vicious or cruel, yet is no worse (or better) than the treatment meted out to Amerindians by the various other European colonial powers including the English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese etc.
I see that this post has grown pretty long-winded so will close here, and add to the list of legendary lost Jesuit mines and directly related to Col Fawcett as among the goals of his explorations:
The Lost Mines of Muribeca, Brazil (*some sources do not attribute these legendary mines to the Jesuits)
Good luck and good hunting, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco
Can the other side of this debate connect those dots? 
