Almost 120 years ago, on the territory of present-day Southern Zimbabwe, a treasure was buried in a deep forest: boxes full of gold and diamonds, ivory, expensive jewelry and much more. All these treasures belonged to King Lobengule, the ruler of the African Empire Matabele.
Uninvited guests
The warlike people of Matabele, the Matabel Zulu, after being defeated in the war with the Boers, the inhabitants of the Transvaal, retreated to the mountainous territory lying between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers in South Africa. Having subdued the local tribes by force, they founded a new state.
In 1868, King Lobengula became the ruler of Matabele, replacing his father, who was famous for his exorbitant cruelty, on the throne. Lobengula, on the other hand, was known as a peaceful person who appreciated the "joys of life."
In the capital of his possessions, Bulawayo, the king had a residence that consisted of several huts. Here Lobengula received visitors. For some time now, white traders, "Ingles", as the natives called them, have become frequent visitors. They brought rich gifts to the king.
In return, the Ingles were asked to be allowed to move freely around the country and to mine gold anywhere in the Lobengula empire. Moreover, they offered the king to give his country altogether under the protection of the powerful English queen.
The uninvited guests presented themselves as messengers of Cecil John Rhodes, allegedly the viceroy of Queen Victoria in South Africa. In fact, Rhodes, an adventurer, traveled to the Black Continent with the determination to cash in on diamond speculation and succeeded quite a bit, becoming the main shareholder in the diamond company.
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Rhodes' intention was to seize and colonize the Matabele lands, famous for their rich mineral resources and excellent climate. Therefore, over and over again he sent his negotiators to Lobengula.
Treasure wagon
The king felt that the matter was unclean, but at the same time he understood that he would not be able to resist the insistence of the British for a long time. It was only about the price at which he was to surrender his property. And in October 1888 Lobengula signed an agreement according to which Rhodes and his partner, a certain Rudd, acquired the full right to extract all minerals in the country of Matabele. In return, the king received a thousand rifles, a military boat and a monthly maintenance of £ 100.
Soon, having figured it out, Lobengula began to protest and tried to terminate the contract. In vain. Two years later, the king received a gracious letter from Queen Victoria. It said that the resettlement of white colonists began in Matabela, and the British South African Company was instructed to maintain order in this country, create an administration, police and military guards, build railways, lay telegraph lines, monitor trade.
Violent construction began. Aboriginal arable land and meadows were destroyed. The cattle were doomed to death, and the population - sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes by force - was involved in construction work.
Now Lobengula thought only about that. how to keep your personal wealth from being plundered. These were huge reserves of expensive ivory. gold, gold coins, rough diamonds, precious jewelry. The king's treasures barely fit on 20 heavily loaded carts. drawn by bulls. The long wagon train, accompanied by a large detachment of Matabele soldiers, moved north.
Death of the king
A few days later, the column turned west and stopped for a long halt. The leaders of the expedition surveyed the surrounding area, looking for a suitable place for the cache.
An unremarkable clearing was chosen. A large hole was dug on it, where they lowered the treasures and threw them with earth, hiding all the signs of the treasure. For reliability, the king's physician enchanted the treasure so that no stranger could find it. Warriors accompanying the wagon train, witnesses of the burial of treasures. were killed mercilessly. Now only the three people closest to the king (his brother, doctor and secretary John Jacobe - a light-skinned aborigine) knew where the treasures were.
Lobengula's life ended tragically. Shortly before his death, he started a war with the neighboring tribe of Mashons, to whom the Matabele were always arrogant and hostile. The so-called Matabel war began, in which the British had to fight with the troops of Lobengula. Of course, the preponderance was on the side of the whites with their rifles, machine guns and cannons.
Lobengula fled from Bulawayo along with his fellow tribesmen and in January 1894 he died - either by his own death, or violent, from some kind of poison.
The first search for the treasure began shortly after the mysterious death of the king. They ended in nothing. It became clear that without accurate data on the location of the buried treasures, it would not be possible to find them. Surprisingly, the testimony of the arrested John Jacobs, the king's secretary who knew the secret, was reacted by the British with distrust and ignored.
Unsuccessful expeditions
Only many years later, in 1906. Jacobs, by that time released from prison, managed to persuade four businessmen to go in search of the treasure. Porters were hired. The expedition moved along the Zambezi River. On the way, several of the porters died, and some deserted. The treasure hunters risked being captured by the cannibals. I had to go around, wasting time and effort.
Cecil John Rhodes posed as Viceroy of Victoria in South Africa
But when they are. It seemed that they had achieved their goal, Lobengula's secretary suddenly announced that he was loyal to the king and was not going to betray the secret. Outraged, Jacobs's companions then admonished him. then they beat me severely. Nothing helped, and the expedition had to turn back.
Two years later, a certain Mrs. Mackenzie appeared in Bulawayo, determined to find the treasures of King Lobengula. But whether the Mrs. began to look for treasures or only intended to do it is unknown.
In fact, the British South African Company was considered to be the formal owner of the undiscovered treasure, and permission was required to start searching. A certain Sydney Wilson did just that. young Englishman. Permission was issued to him, however, on the condition that only a third of the discovered treasures could go to the treasure hunter. the rest are companies.
Wilson learned about the place of the treasure from the caretaker of the prison in which the king's secretary Jacobs was once imprisoned. But, apparently, the caretaker lied or did not have accurate information about the treasure at all. One way or another, but after many days of searching, Wilson returned empty-handed.
It is not known what guided Jacobs, but in 1908 he led a second expedition to the hoard. The year was drawing to a close when three tired people appeared on the border with Angola. They explained to the border guard that they were lost. Jacobs was one of the travelers.
"Enchanted" treasure
The detainees were interrogated, and they told about the unsuccessful search for treasure. Jacobe admitted that he deceived the treasure hunters, but he did so only after overhearing their conversation. They allegedly said that they were going to kill their guide when they found the treasure.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the German African colony became interested in the Lobengula treasures. They were seriously considering organizing an expedition to the area where the treasure was supposedly located. The outbreak of the First World War prevented the Germans from implementing this plan. But it was he who prompted the search for another treasure hunter. This time the officer of the South African Intelligence Service, Major John Leipoldt.
He prepared his expedition for a long time and only in 1921 set off along the path where the train with the treasures of King Lobengula once passed. Meeting aborigines. Leipoldt asked about the treasure of old-timers. Finally, the expedition reached a clearing - the supposed burial place of the precious cargo. A large stone lay in the center, and some suspicious signs were visible in the trees. Alas, the excavations yielded nothing, but the stubborn major later came back here again and again.
The last time was in 1930. A large group of workers arrived with the major. They dug deep holes. The walls of one of them suddenly collapsed, and several excavators died under the rubble. The rainy season has begun and the cache has not yet been discovered. Leipoldt fell ill with malaria, which almost drove him to the grave, and, cursing everything in the world, he left this "enchanted" place forever.
It is said that the last person to try to find the treasure was Rhodesian John Bergman. But he also failed to reveal the secret of King Matabele. Lobengula's Healer's Curse works reliably!
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 49. Gennady Chernenko