TREASURE SEEKERS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3779, 14 April 1928, Page 1

TREASURE SEEKERS

CARGOES OF BULLION. The richest of all the argosies of Spain were the plate fleets which carried each year to Cadiz and Seville the cargoes of bullion from the mines of Peru and Mexico. The greatest treasure ever lost since the world began was that which filled holds of the fleet of galleons that sailed from Cartagene, Porto Bpllo, and Vera Cruz in the year 1702. The whereabouts of this treasure is not befogged in legend and confused by mystery and uncertainty. That fleet of fifty'galleons and fifty million pounds in gold ingots and silver bars lie yet at the bottom of Vigo Bay on the coast of Spain. Of all the freebooter’s treasure, for which search is still being made, the most famous are those buried on Cocos 'lsland! (reputedly £14,000000) in the Pacific and the rocky

islet of Trinidad in the South Atlantic. Eeach island has been dug over and ransacked at frequent intervals in the last century without success.

Captain Thomson, of the British trading brig, Dear Mary, received in his vessel in Lima Harbour £3,000,000 in gold and silver. The Spanish owners did not refnain the owners for tong. Once at sea, Thomson and his crew murdered them, sailed north in the Pacific, and buried the booty on Cocos Island intending to return later to divide it. They were not suffered to do', so, however, and the treasure remains there to this day. - Just to the southward of Madiera is a cluster of small uninhabited islands, called the Salvages. In 1804 a Spanish merchantman sailed from South America for Cadiz with silver to the value of £l,000,000 in chests in her hold. Near the Salvages the crew killed the captain and snugly buried the treasure on a beach. As an afterthoight the body of the murdered captain was placed on top of it. 'The a-easure is still in its hiding place. During the period when Pt. Royal vas the headquarters of the great generation of buccaneers who harried the Spanish treasure fleets and owns in the West Indies, and on die coasts of the Isthmus of Panama and South and Central America, the famous Sir Henry Morgan was the outstanding figure of them all. Morgan’s exploits, included the sacking of the rich city of Porto Bello, and of Panama. From the latter exploit fiis share was over £1,000,000.

Bartholomew Roberts, Pierre le Grande, Bartholomew Portugez and Montbars the Exterminator were other famous captains who sailed the Spanish main under the “jolly Roger:” Of L’Ollonais, the story is told that he amused himself by cutting out the hearts of live Spaniards and gnawing the “toothsome morsels” while another trick of his was slicing off the heads of a whole . hip’s crew and drinking their blood. The treasure of all these and many less famous are buried along tire shores of the Spanish Main awaiting the lucky finder. Many expeditions have sailed on the trail of pirate’s gold. A dozen have futilely sweated and dug for it on Cocos Island; others have cast one hors in the harbours of Guam and Carolines. Out from Callo is Clipperton Island, which has been combed many times by treasurehunters, while from Valparaiso many an expedition has found its way to Juan Fernandez, and the Magellan Straits. The small island of Tortuga, off the Jamaican coast, Jamaica itself, Cuba, the Isle of Pines, Hispaniola —all have their treasure troves. A lost- treasure which has 1 interested more than one is in the Auckland. Islands. In 1866 the General Grant, a sailing ship, bound from Australia to London was lost there. One item of her cargo was 50,000 ounces of gold. In a most extraordinary manner the vessel was driven by the seas into a great cavern in the cliff from which only a handful of her men managed to escape. They lived for 18 months on the desert island before being taken off. The hulk of the General Grant is still within the cave, but the undertow of great waves has so far baf(led all attempts to recover her gold.