The Spaniards arrived in the southwestern region sometime in the year of 1528 AD. The king of Spain ordered Jesuit Priests to that region to setup missions and smaller outlying missions (visita). The Jesuit Priests arrived sometime in the year of 1670 AD. They immediately went to work building their missions and visitas. The missions were established throughout the southwest and present day California. The visitas fanned out in all directions (as in a spoke from a bicycle) from a central point (mission). Each visita was spaced approximately 15 miles apart. Where a mission or visita was established, either a spanish town or an indian village was nearby.
In the beginning, the priests worked hard at conducting masses, religious ceremonies, weddings, and converting the indians to their religious faith. Gold had been discovered and word got back to the king of Spain. He ordered the priests to gather all the gold they could get their hands on and send the gold back to Spain. The priests enlisted the indians for labor, working in mines. Everything seemed to be going well until ... an incident with the indians ignited a full scale war that sent the indians to killing anyone and everyone who was not an indian. When word got to the priests to return to Spain with all the gold they could bring with them, they gathered all the animals needed to transport their cargo.
The killings lasted for 50 years until 1767, when all of the priests were replaced by Franciscan Monks. Ships were sent to the Baha Peninsula to await transporting the priests and spaniards back to Spain. The Jesuits in present day Colorado and New Mexico had the farthest to travel. The gold that the Jesuits could not take with them were buried. The Jesuits that were killed by the indians were buried with the gold.
It is said that the missions and visitas were used as a highway for transporting the gold back to Spain. These missions and visitas could still contain a hidden cache of gold. It is also said that the Jesuits sometimes hid separate caches and did not report these caches to the king of Spain. When they were killed or replaced by Franciscan Monks, the location of the caches were not revealed, thus lost forever.
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