The old sailor was right. Our search had just begun. After lifting the heavy chessboard from the floor and almost consumed by dampness, an old rotten wooden chest saw the light again. Inside was a sealed envelope bearing the emblem of the Royal Navy. Upon opening it and with astonishment we could read after more than 400 years the handwriting that gave voice to Admiral Oquendo. It read as follows:

To purge from all evil such ignoble gold, obtained with treachery and blood and cursed by him who stole it, I, Antonio de Oquendo y Zandategui, loyal servant of King Philip IV and Admiral General of the Navy of the Ocean Sea, after falling into my hands the Gold of El Dorado, and so that this would not cause more evil to men, I decided to sanctify it and hide it for divine grace of our Lord under his clemency, where I received the first and most important of all the sacraments.

These were the words that we read in black ink while the air decomposed and erased them. After carefully examining the letter line by line, we have come to the conclusion that one of the last resting places of the treasure of Lope y Oquendo was this church and that perhaps it is buried under some of it.

It is time to check known archives and take a walk around San Vicente to try to discover perhaps one of the supposed hiding places of the gold.