On April 30th, 1538, during the era of Spanish conquistadors, a man named Blas del Castillo traveled with a group of workers to the Masaya volcano in what is now Nicaragua due to rumors that its lava lake contained molten gold. Over several months, they extracted molten material from its active lava lake, believing they had struck it rich. However, they were disappointed when no gold or silver was found upon analyzing the samples they obtained.