Cocos Island's Fatal Treasure Solved.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 April 1914, Page 2

Cocos Island's Fatal Treasure Solved.

A Remarkable Confession Which In--1 < drcates That the Famous Treasure for Which Hundreds of Lives Have Been Sacrificed, Was Removed From Its Resting Place Sixty Years Ago. The strange fatality which has attended all expeditions to recover this hidden treasure is now a matter of history. At least a dozen different expeditions have been organised to unearth the buried loot but for one reason or another every one has failed. Cocos Island is a deserted, rocky piece of land located about three hundred miles from the coast of Costa Rica. In 1820, when Peru was being torn asunder by a revolution, the trembling citizens, realising how feeble was the protection afforded by their banks and the altars of their churches, entrusted the treasure to the captain of an English vessel. This man weighed anchor and sailed for Cocos Island, where he buried the treasure, amounting to £2,400,000. The balance of the treasure was buried on the island by no less a character than the notorious pirate Benito Bonito, who with a loyal crew of cut-throats did an immense amount of damage in the Western Atlantic from New York to Ri'o Janeiro in 1816-17. Bonito then doubled Cape Horn and ravaged the Pacific shore of America as far. as Mexico, sacking the churches and other repositories of plate, jewels, and specie until his loot amounted to over £.4,000,000. In searching for a spot to bury this treasure Bonito came upon Co-

cos Island. There he burled his share of it in a cave, while his oilicers and crew chose ' other hid-ing-places. The following year the , pirate and his crew were c-aptured iby a British corvette and slain. Twice Earl Fitzwillinm" tried to find the fabled fortune. In 1904 he landed there only to have a premature blast fracture his skull and wound sixteen of his men. In 1907 he tried again, but lost his ship in a gale oft" Honduras, and was nearly drowned. That same year Harold W. S. Gray, another Englishman, went to the island with a large party of men, only to have them fall desperately ill and abandon the search. But while this strange fatality connected with the Cocos treasure is inexplicable, a very good reason why the treasure has never been located is now advanced. It comes from the quaint little town of Cedar Grove, Maine, where lives a white-haired, frosty-bearded old sea captain named James Brown. Captain Brown is 'now nearly* eighty years old,. For the 1 last fifteen years he has been trying to establish his | claim that he alone knows the exact _ location of the buried l mii- • lions.' • And his startling explanation for the fruitless effort's of the gold hunters is that the treasure is not on Cocos Island at all, but was removed by him and others to another | island ■'.sixty years ago ! :In .1.851 he was in the harbour i (if Kingston on a vessel fron^HaliI Tax, Imt changed strips at the Ja- | niaica port to join another vessel as j mate. Although he believed this | ship was going pearl fishing, he ! found later that the vessel was thor- ! oiighly armed, carried a crew of j fifty-two men, and was bound for I Cocos Island to hunt for buried I treasure. | The captain, Brown says, declared |ho was the son of one of the origi- j nal buccaneers. On reaching the is- ' i land the captain produced a diagrammatic chart, and after some difliculty the gold was found. At the suggestion of the captain the treasure was removed to another is-

land, reburied, and sail was set for Melbourne, where the captain had heard that a ship carrying' an immense quantity of bullion was about to sail. The captain managed to ship some of his crew on this vessel, who murdered everybody else on hoard as soon as land was left behind. The gold ship was then taken to the island where (he treasure had been cached, and the bullion removed from the vessel. Then, before the bullion could be divided, the crew, with the exception of the captain, Brown, and a steward, mysteriously sickened and died. As the three men left were not enough to man the pirate ship, they loaded as much gold as they could into a small boat, and, after burying the remainder, started back to Australia. The steward, Br'own says, died during the trip. Then, one day, Brown declares, the captain attacked him with a pistol, and Brown fired first, killing his assailant. On reaching Australia he managed to dispose of the gold in the boat for about £20,000, but speculated with it until a few years afterward he found himself impoverished. In 1902 a number of wealthy men subscribed £-4,000 for an expedition to recover the treasure under Brown's leadership, but the strange, uncanny fate that seems to balk all efforts in this direction interfered, and mishap after mishap visited the gold-seekers. Shipwreck and illness turned them back. Brown swore than that he would never repeat the attempt, but he is now negotiating for a final expedition to recover the buried treasure.