The Lost Treasure of LoGondonda

   A while back I received a letter from my Aunt Rosemary, informing me that she had found some old transcripts about her distant relative Aunt
Beatrice. She was living in a small town in Colorado and seeing a gentleman by the name of Lloyd. Well, they lived in the town of La Ponte, which is an old Spanish word that means “In the Valley of the Hidden Treasure.” Back in the sixteenth century, La Ponte was a meeting place and hideaway for pirates that were running from the British and Spanish authorities. One of the pirates was a distant relative of Lloyd. His name was Lo Gondonda, and as time passed he became quite a famous pirate along the West Coast. Lo Gondonda would bring his stolen treasures to a cove about midway through what is now known as the California Coast and harbor his ship, and from there, Lo Gondonda and his pirates would travel to La Ponte, where he would bury the treasure in the mountains. He was a very suspicious man and never trusted the other pirates who went along on the journey to hide the treasure. As they were leaving the area where the treasure was buried, Lo Gondonda would murder all those who were with him. When he returned to his ship, Lo Gondonda would explain to the others that the pirates that had gone with him had decided to stay in La Ponte and guard the treasure.
   As time passed, the crew grew smaller and smaller. On returning to the cove after many trips, Lo Gondonda realized that he did not have any crew left. Being the well-seasoned pirate that he was, Lo Gondonda ventured off and was never heard from again.
   Years went by and Lo Gondonda’s wife, who had been spending all this time in England, would try to keep tabs on her husband—she wanted to know the whereabouts of the man that she had married—but she would only hear rumors. She had only one child by him; finally, she remarried and went on with her life. Generations passed, and it was Lloyd’s father who moved to America and settled in La Ponte, because his family had kept the stories of Lo Gondonda and his treasure alive. Lloyd meet Beatrice about 1906, when she moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to La Ponte. Nobody knew why or how she landed in this small town, but when she arrived, everyone knew she was there. After settling into a small house on the outskirts of town, she started working at a small diner. She made it a point of trying to know everyone and what their business was. One afternoon, Lloyd came into the diner and was having his usual lunch—and that was their first encounter.
   First appearances and impressions can have a lasting effect on relationships. Lloyd, being a firm believer in the history of his family, tried to carry on the tradition of his great-great-uncle Lo Gondonda and became sort of a swashbuckler in his own right. He was quite stubborn with the attitude that all women should fall head over heels in love with him; he was quite impressed with himself.
   Lloyd tried to impress Beatrice with his tales of the lost treasure and the exciting times he had while searching for it. Lloyd was about the only person who still believed that there were treasures in the hill surrounding La Ponte.
Beatrice was just as independent and full of herself as Lloyd was and she was a firm believer that she was the best thing that could happen to men. With two such similar personalities, their first encounter did not start too well.
Lloyd and Beatrice did not speak for many years after that first meeting. They would pass by each other in the town, but neither of them would acknowledge the other. The townsfolk came to the conclusion that they truly did have an interest in each other, but both of them were too stubborn to make the first move. When their eyes would meet, there was a twinkle in them, as if to say, “I like you, but you have to speak to me first.
Lloyd would leave town and continue his quest to find the lost treasure. He was usually gone for two or three weeks at a time. Beatrice started worrying about Loyde after he did not show up at the diner for some time. The other workers at the diner did not realize that Beatrice was unaware of Lloyd’s treasure hunting, and they informed her that this was Lloyd’s usual behavior and he would return soon. She denied any concern about him, but all those at the diner knew that the two cared for each other.
   Lloyd returned empty-handed once again and went to the diner to tell his tales, as he had been doing for many years. At this point, Beatrice looked at him and started to believe in what Loyde was saying. They sat at the table, and their life together began that day. They were married and settled down in the house where Beatrice had been living. She continued working in the diner, and Lloyd kept going off to search for the lost treasure.
   At this point Beatrice started thinking that Lloyd was going crazy, but I believe that most married couples feel that one or the other is not acting with the proper facilities at some point, and life continues. Lloyd did not know much about Beatrice’s past and it seemed as though he was not very interested in it because he never asked her any questions. Beatrice, being similar to Lloyd, did not ask too many questions about his past, either. The only interest that she seemed to have was that of the treasure. Lloyd’s father was a firm believer in the lost treasure and spent nearly his whole life searching for it but never found any trace of it. Lloyd’s father went on his final search for the treasure and never returned to La Ponte. Lloyd knew that his father had died while searching for his dream. Lloyd had grown up in this small town, where everybody knew him and his father, and everyone liked him and knew that he was set on finding the lost treasure.
   There was a sense of secrecy about Beatrice, and some of the townspeople talked about this among themselves. Every time that Beatrice’s friends would ask her about her past, she would avoid the question and change the subject. She would give them silly excuses, as she ran out of money and had to remain there, or that the countryside was so beautiful that she just could not leave.
   My aunt Rosemary told me that when Beatrice and Lloyd were in their late forties, things started to change. Beatrice continued working at the diner, but she began flirting more and more with the men in town. Lloyd would be off, searching for the treasure. When he returned home, Lloyd and Beatrice would have less and less to say to one another.
   One night, they were sitting in the living room around the fire, and Beatrice looked at Lloyd with a very serious face. She asked him if he had any idea where the treasure was hidden. Beatrice did believe in what her husband had told her, but she did not want Lloyd to end up like his father, searching his whole life but never finding the treasure. Lloyd had never asked Beatrice to help him search for the treasure and that was the main reason the two of them started drifting apart.
   That night, they talked and decided that the two of them would become partners and look for the treasure together. The two of them looked at old maps of the area and the possible routes that Lo Gondonda might have taken. Lloyd and Beatrice started working as a team and went over every possible route that the old pirate might have traveled. They realized that if the legend was true, then there should be skeletons of the pirates that Lo Gondonda had murdered, and if these remains could not be found, they were most likely in a cave. Since most caves are located on the side of a mountain, that was where they would start searching.
   A few more years had passed, and they were no better off than they had been many years ago—they had not found the treasure, and there had been a lot of hard work. They were still together, though, and firm believers in the lost treasure of Lo Gondonda.
   One day, Beatrice explained to Lloyd that her aunt in Baltimore had died, and she had to tend to family matters but would return in a short period. Lloyd looked confused—Beatrice had never mentioned that she had any family or relatives at all.
   Lloyd continued looking for the treasure while Beatrice was away, and one night, around dusk, he came upon a small ravine surrounded by small bushes and trees. It could hardly be seen, but Lloyd had literally stumbled upon it—he had tripped on a small, protruding object. Upon further investigation and uncovering some dirt, he realized that it was a human bone. At first, he was startled, but then Lloyd felt a sense of relief—this was the first event that had ever happened that might help him in his quest for the treasure. He scraped away more of the soil and realized that the bone was part of human remains—and Lloyd knew then that it was the remains of his father. There was something odd about the positioning of his father’s hand. His right hand was stretched out straight, and his finger was pointing toward the bushes that were ahead of him. He thought about his father and started to weep, but felt that maybe his father had died just prior to finding the treasure—and that was why his hand was pointing. A smile came over Lloyd’s face as he stood up and headed for the bushes. As he got closer, he noticed a small opening that went into the ground. He slid into the opening and came upon a shallow tunnel, large enough for him to crawl through. Lloyd took his flashlight and continued farther into the tunnel. The tunnel became wider and wider until it turned into a large open room, filled with the skeletons of the past pirates and wooden boxes filled with the treasure of Lo Gondonda.
   Two generations of looking for the treasure and now, Lloyd was
standing in front of it—it was too much for Loyde to take at once. He fainted and fell to the ground. Once he awoke, Lloyd realized that all the belief he and his father had had about the legend was true. He sorted through all the chests and had no idea what to do with it. His life had been spent in trying to find the treasure; he had never spent much time thinking about what to do with it once he found it. He returned to where his father was, and he buried him, feeling a sense of sadness that his father might not have seen the treasure before he had died.
   Lloyd marked out a map and headed back home. He could not wait to tell Beatrice that he had found the treasure and the remains his father. Upon returning home, he promised himself that he would not tell anyone about the treasure except Beatrice. She had already returned and was there to greet Lloyd. He told her all about the treasure and how he had found it. Her reaction seemed strange.
   She should look overjoyed, thought Lloyd. However, she did not; she just stared at him with no real expression.
“What’s the problem?” Lloyd asked her.
“I’m just tired after my long trip,” she replied.
   After talking for some time, they decided to go after the treasure in the morning. It would take two days to hike there, so they packed up some supplies and started early the next day. Lloyd talked about what they should do with the treasure, but Beatrice kept the same expression that she had the day before.
   They arrived at the tunnel the following evening; Lloyd brought Beatrice down to where the treasure was. They sat down and gathered their breath, and Beatrice looked overwhelmed by the amount of treasure.
   It was at that point that Beatrice pulled out a gun and shot Lloyd dead. She left his remains there, and over a period, she took all the treasure and moved back to Baltimore without anyone ever knowing what had happened to her or Lloyd.
   Years after Beatrice died, relatives found, hidden inside her home, the diaries of the years she had spent in La Ponte and with Lloyd. Beatrice was a firm believer in the history of her family. One of the diaries told the story of Lo Gondonda….
   Long ago, when Lo Gondonda made his last journey out to sea, he was captured by a British sea captain named John Thise and held prisoner. Lo Gondonda murdered Captain John Thise, but Lo Gondonda was never captured and never paid for his crimes. Captain John Thise was a great great uncle of Beatrice Thise, and her belief—and that of her family—was that justice had never been served. Beatrice believed that killing Lloyd and taking the treasure finally avenged her great-great-uncle John Thise. In addition, Beatrice spent the money well. She was never brought to justice, as was Lo Gondond

The End

        Just Another Left Handed Sagittarian With M.S.

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        **** All Rights Reserved. James W. Horne. August 6, 2009. ****

               Just Another Left handed Sagittarian with MS