The Black Continent is a land of secrets and mysteries. Country of ancient kings and untold riches. The Zulu king Lobengula was fabulously wealthy. Diamonds, ivory, gold. All that any greedy soul desires. But even they did not save him from captivity by the white conquerors. Where the untold treasures of the king disappeared - a secret sealed with seven seals. But even decades later, it turns the heads of those looking for easy money.
This story began in the middle of the South African savannas, where the state of Zimbabwe is now spread. Kolol Lobengula, who replaced his glorious father on the throne, brought order to his lands with an iron hand. Under him, the region flourished, although ordinary people often suffered from its tyrannical character. However, the king was not stupid. The treasury in the kraal (palace) of Lobengula was always full of riches. He was tall and sturdy, with thick hair that fell to his shoulders.
And behind him was a shadow followed by a man who later played an important role in the story of the king's downfall. John Jacobs, the royal secretary, was an outstanding person. A half-breed mulatto who inherited the "white" blood from a shipwrecked European. His mother threw him out into the street as a child, he early learned the bitter taste of life.
But he was incredibly lucky when missionaries picked him up on the streets of Johannesburg and placed him in an orphanage. The clever little boy liked Pastor Esselen, who took him with him to Europe in order to give spiritual education. John later tried not to remember his years at the Dutch seminary. However, during his scams, he sometimes presented himself as the pastor of an Ethiopian church.
After long wanderings in Africa, during which Jacobs sold diamonds, engaged in petty fraud and sat in prison a couple of times (once for an attempted rape), he was able to get into Bulawayo (as the king's kraal was called). The cunning and enterprising young man managed to present Lobengula with all his virtues: knowledge of English, Dutch and several African dialects, knowledge of literacy, numeracy and elementary economic and diplomatic norms. The king needed a man capable of negotiating with the Europeans, who were actively exploring Africa at that time.
The rich land ruled by Lobengula has always attracted Europeans. They were willing to pay in gold in order to have certain privileges in the extraction of minerals. Hundreds of thousands of sovereigns from diamond mining firms flocked to the chief's treasury. The monarch himself inherited from his ancestors a decent supply of ivory, which he tripled during his reign. The servants who worked in the mines, upon returning home, were obliged to present a diamond to the king. The fact that Lobengula was fabulously rich was not in doubt. To store only a small part of his treasures, he ordered two massive safes in Europe.
King Lobengula was smart, he realized that sooner or later the interests of the Europeans would overlap with his interests, but until recently he tried to avoid open confrontation. However, his generals did not want to put up with the dominance of the whites on their lands. The king understood that his reign was coming to an end.
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The shrewd king decided to bury all his wealth in a secluded place so that greedy white people would not get it. Therefore, in February 1893, he gathered a large detachment, about one and a half thousand people, consisting of soldiers and slaves. With their help, he loaded all his wealth into three dozen vans and went northwest of his capital, presumably into the mountains in the territory of modern Angola.
Having approached the right place, a squad of slaves buried bags of wealth in some area. In order to hide all traces of agricultural work, a series of explosions were made. All the trees in the area were burned, and the stones were uprooted. The area was sown with corn to erase all possible landmarks.
At the end of the event, a detachment of fighters, who were waiting for the slaves behind the pass, killed everyone who could point to the place of the treasure. Only three of them knew the place where the treasure was buried. It was Lobengula himself, his brother (who died in a skirmish with the British a few weeks later) and Jacobs.
Six months later, the Dutch besieged Bulawayo, defeated the king's troops and burned the kraal to the ground. They could not find the legendary treasures of Lobengula among the burning huts. The king himself fled, he was pursued to the very Zambezi River. It was rainy season and the cavalry was stuck in the mud.
Lobengula, along with his entourage, left the pursuers on foot. They were broken physically and mentally. Not surprisingly, smallpox soon took the king and many of his entourage. However, the cunning John Jacobs survived and even managed to surrender to the British. They did not judge him, but sent him to the Transvaal, as a political refugee.
When the wars in southern Africa died down, Jacobs, eking out a miserable existence somewhere in South Africa, decided to gather a group of adventurers in order to find the treasures of his former boss. At the border, the group was detained and taken to the governor of the province of Balovale, who interrogated Jacobs with passion. The governor did not believe in the tale of a desire to return to his native land because of oppressive nastalgia. He himself expelled the treasure hunter from the country and took away his wallet.
But the former secretary did not give up, and after a couple of years he equipped a new expedition, which secretly crossed the border and reached the supposed burial place of the treasure. But, after weeks of futile wanderings, Jacobs was never able to pinpoint the place where the riches were buried. On their way back, they were again detained and driven out of the country again. The third time was the last for the stubborn secretary. Even the safari disguise did not help. Jacobs finally turned the power of Zimbabwe against himself and was put behind bars for a couple of months. Then he was again exiled to South Africa, where he whiled away his life. I must say, Jacobs lived to be 105 years old.
There were others who wanted to find Lobengula's legacy. Major Leipoldt even tracked down Jacobs in order to pinpoint the location of the treasure. The mestizo, falling into insanity, gave him the coordinates, sending the ambitious major into the wilds of Angola. In 1920, he equipped an expedition that combed thousands of acres of jungle in a vain attempt to find secret signs, and the major himself almost died of malaria. Ultimately, even he backed down.
There were also those who assumed that the king's treasury rests with him. And people rushed to find his grave. And in November 1943, Commissioner Huxtable, together with a group of guides, found Lobengula's tomb, which was located in a cave on the banks of the Zambezi River. Unfortunately, the tomb has already been visited by marauders. But it was obvious that it was impossible to hide there all those countless riches, which were said in the legend.
The treasure remained a treasure. And, perhaps, it will remain so. There are practically no living witnesses of those events left. As well as written confirmation of where and when Lobengula buried his wealth. They are safely hidden in the land of the Black Continent. Is there a lucky man who will find the king's untold riches?