Arroa's Lost Gold

While prospecting in Baja, California, on the slopes of the Sierra de los Cocopah Mountains in 1873, a Mexican named Pedro Pedrillo came upon a crude and weathered wooden cross.

Carved into the cross-piece was a message directing the finder to dig beneath the cross. Pedrillo dug down several inches and un-covered a metal canister fashioned from an early Spanish breastplate.

Inside the canister was a scroll, brittle with age, but with a still-decipherable account of an intriguing incident recorded by Capt. Jesus Arroa of the brig Isabella Catolica.

On March 29, 1682, Arroa's ship was wrecked by a storm off the coast of Lower California. With his crew intact, Arroa managed to escape to the peninsula, where they survived for many months.