90

Listening to the leader, Istvan could not recover from amazement. So the Templars were in the West Indies long before Señor Columbus?

“The Order was rich,” he reflected, “and could well equip an expedition to search for new lands. The Templars sailed here and found huge reserves of silver and gold. So that's where the legends about the untold wealth of the order came from! Some came to rule the Incas, others left, taking away priceless treasures on ships. And then what? They returned forever ... Probably, it was under Philip the Handsome, who banned the order and arrested everyone he could find. But many Templars escaped and lived here until their deaths. Why didn't they leave offspring? Posing as gods? Of course, they were monks! They could not have intercourse with women and remained faithful to their vow even in such conditions. How many times have I broken my vow of chastity? Eh..."

This discovery shocked Istvan. All his knowledge of the history of the conquest of the West Indies