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One man, Emmanuel Saltiel, has been mostly held responsible for that failure. Whether Saltiel tricked the immigrants into settling in Cotopaxi under false pretenses, or was just trying to provide them a new home but fell victim to the landscape depends on which historian you ask. Regardless, some of the details surrounding the colony are still unclear.

Miles Saltiel, Emmanuel’s distant cousin, has offered a monetary reward for any historical documents that can help clarify the role Emmanuel played in the Cotopaxi settlement. That’s where Rovner comes in. “Miles has a personal stake in the history,” Rovner says, “but nonetheless, he has taken an admirably open-minded approach to the history of Cotopaxi.”

Saltiel appointed Rovner to serve as an impartial authenticator for any documents that are submitted. “He’s simply asked that I confirm the provenance of any documents that are submitted to claim the bounties,” Rovner says. “If any of these documents still exist, they are likely in an archive somewhere--possibly on the east coast--and really all I'm responsible for is vetting any claims that are submitted by historical bounty hunters.”

In the CPR interview, Rovner said, “As a scholar of literature and as someone who’s interested in intellectual history, I do believe that the more documents there are, the more light we can shed.” He continued, “Perhaps they further complicate the history, but that’s what I’m interested in.”

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