Eyewitness accounts describe Spaniards drowning in the water, weighed down by looted treasure that they had melted into gold bars. This tale might sound a bit too much like a Herzogian allegory for the crazed greed of the conquistadors, but in 1981 a 2-kilogram ingot was dug up during building work in downtown Mexico City along the Spaniards’ escape route and tests have shown that it was forged in 1519 or 1520.
