MINERALOGIST

Commencing in October of 1932, was L. Ron Hubbard’s West Indies Mineralogical Expedition. As the title implies, the stated aim was the survey and mining of precious deposits — or as Ron himself described it, “picking fabulous float from rivers which glittered with gold and silver.” In fact, however, that “fabulous float” lay well beyond arm’s reach, and Ron was soon reporting from deep within the Puerto Rican jungle.

His formal account of this Puerto Rican Mineralogical Expedition (also known as the West Indies Mineralogical Expedition), he aptly entitled “A Sample Pick Saga” for the prospector’s requisite tool. To all that he offers in broad strokes, let us add a few more incidental notes. Although his tone remains breezy throughout, in fact Puerto Rico proved grueling and Ron would long keep bottles of quinine at hand for recurrent bouts of malaria. Notwithstanding his failure to find that legendary lode of “metallic sunshine,” the venture did indeed prove profitable with the staking of claims to silicon, manganese and several lesser ores. His references to the jibaros are significant, for he conducted much ethnological work amongst interior villages, with particular regard to that curious blend of Catholicism and voodoo known as espiritismo. Finally, this Puerto Rican expedition constituted the first complete mineralogical survey under US jurisdiction, and is otherwise still remembered in the annals of grand adventure.

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