treasure hunting Eventually, the Conquest had subdued the country, and the Colonial period (1550 - 1810) began. While this period was not marked by such brutal plundering of Indian riches as was evident during the Conquest, much was still stolen or appropriated. The only known official acknowledgement of this fact is a royal decree requesting the Royal Mint not to melt those gold pieces of artistic value. It can be presumed, however, that the rich landowners directed searchers toward the Indian burial sites in order to increase their fortunes. It is possible that at the time of the liberating wars (1810), during the establishment of the Republic (1819), and later still during the Civil War (1899 - 1902), important discoveries of Indian cemeteries were neither recorded nor talked about. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did gold fever return in full. The treasure hunters began digging up from the depths those marvelous objects which delight and amaze us today. In 1918 Luis Arango wrote Remembrances of Treasure Hunting in the Quindio, the first book to narrate the extraordinary experiences of the treasure hunter&emdash;his dreams, hopes, and defeats&emdash;and to describe the poverty to which many of them were reduced after spending great fortunes, and having found only pottery, fragments of stone, and old skeletons from tombs that had already been exploited or which never contained gold at all. In contrast, he wrote of the wealth that others accumulated, because of the official negligence which let them take incomparable jewels from the country to melting shops abroad. It is impossible to know how many objects of incalculable value, stolen away by the treasure hunters, have been lost forever. It was not until 1959 and Law 163 that the country officially protected its treasures. In 1963, Judicial Decree 264 followed, which dealt with the "protection of the archeological, historical, and artistic heritage as well as that of natural monuments," and assigned to the Colombian Institute of Anthropology the post of custodian of the nation's ancient riches. Today, with the advances of science, the research of archeologists, the dating of cultures and the publications that periodically appear, Colombia is making great advances toward understanding completely its pre-Columbian heritage. Fortunately, not all the treasure hunters reduced the beautiful gold work they found to powder. Many, aware that this was part of a great cultural heritage, turned the priceless pieces over to the Gold Museum. One such person was Don Jose Cano, descendant of the old patriarch from Antioquia, Nemesio Cano, who half a century ago, while attempting to remove a flagstone from a street in Santuario&emdash;a village near the Tatama hill&emdash;discovered a rich Indian grave. Since then, his son Jose has dedicated himself to the search for treasures, rivaling Leocadio Arango "El Mensajero" (The Messenger) and Santiago Velez, in the acquisition of precious jewels. His findings are now on exhibit at the Gold Museum. Jose Cano and his son Guillermo were paid by the Museum for the pre- Columbian objects which they fourid, naturally, but it is certain that because of them, perhaps more than any others, part of the resplendent past of Colombia is now visible to its people again. There are earrings, tembetas, anklets, breastplates, and nose rings, all of which sparkled at the ceremonies of the Quimbaya, Sinu, Calima, and Tairona tribes.