PIRATES' TREASURE

Shannon News, 2 March 1926, Page 3

PIRATES' TREASURE

TRAGIC END TO SEARCH. QUEST ON THE ROCK OF IRON WOMAN DIVES AND VANISHES. What sinister fate overtook Mrs. Hart-Hughes, who headed an expedition to the mysterious Rock of Iron that rises like a black pillar out of the blue waters of the Caribbean bea.' This intrepid woman treasure-hunter was inspire! in her search by stories of vast treasure secreted In the rock by Spanish pirates 300 years ago. These stories of the exploits of the Spanish pirates Gustado and Dafonso who harried the Western waters, have been told for centuries about the coastwise town of Florida and in the old settlements of the West Indian islands. , They sailed the high seas about the green islands of the tropical Caribbean Sea. , They looted and sunk merchantmen and sent their hapless crews to death bv way of the plank. They tortured and killed the natives and traders of the island settlements. And always they carried away their tooted treasure to soui 0 secret hidingplace which revenue cutters were never able to find.

Both pirates died in their boots and i so never lived to realise their dreams lof retiring? to enjoy their hoards in some lovely town of sunny Spain. What then, became of the vast hoard accumulated in a lifetime of freebooting? Professor Finds a Clue. For 200 years men asked themselves this question. But it was not until 86 years ago, that Professor Calvin P. Arntz r an American archaeologist, deliberately set himself the task of solving the riddle of the lost pirate treasure. His investigations took him to the scenes of the long-dead pirates' exploits, and after patient inquiry and research he found, on the island of Cuba, some old parchments in a hidebound and brass-studded chest, which supplied the missing clue. From these parchomnts, yellow with-'age and rotted by -Bea water, ProfesFor'Arnts cam* ispon references to the mysterious Rock of Iron, which stands high out of the blue waters of Ih c Caribbean Sea like a black pillar elevated by the b.nnds of grants. Convinced that this was the headquarters of the .bloodthirsty pirates. Professor Atntz, in the face of scepticism and ridicule, set out with two assistants in a small craft, to survey the solitary rock. The tall black mass* when approached by boat, was seen to have no landing-place. Sheer black walls rose straight from the placid water. An attempt was made with ladders and sealing irons to climb to the summit. Anita's two assistants undertook this perilous task. They had reached a height of -00 ft when disaster overtook them. The leading man slipped and was plunged, dragging his'coir.panion to death on the rocks below. Quest Abandoned, j The learned treasure hunter was disillusioned. It seemed impossible :'or th's gaunt rock to have afforded i landing place :'or the buccaneers; vnore impossible still that heavy and often bulky loot could have been secreted there. Professor Arntz abandoned his quest.

For years nothing more was done. Then Mrs. Hart-Hughes,* came into possession of the facts. She was an expert swimmer and diver; she had travelled far up the Amazon; had spent years in Yukatan. Adventure was in her blood. . She formulated a new theory as to the pirates' secret treasure. Sh e urged, that'they had gained-ac-cess to the Uock of Iron by way of a passage beneath the water. Th 0 booming sound of waters spoken- of by Professor Arntz had suggested th'.s idea to her. This echoing suggested a hollow cavern within the imp re- nable rock. . Sh e determined to put her theory to the test. Mrs. Hart-Hughes organised an expedition. Wivfc her she took a friend a-so an expert swimmer and diver, They intended to investigate ,the walls of the Rock of Iron under water. The calm waters, their delicious ' warmth, and the absence of sharks made the work of the women .divers comparatively easy. Bit by bit, they explored the rock wells beneath the j water, plunging down to a depth of I 15 feet. | Days passed, and the two divers returned .again and again to the surface to report, with monotonous regularity, that oelew water there was nothing but a smooth, wall of sheer rock. Death Beneath the Waters Hope was growing dim, and the rest of the party was beginning to regard the Quest as a fool's errand, when on e day Mrs. Hart-Hughs rose to the surface and shouted and waved her great news. i She had found a small opeing which looked as if it wer e an under-water passage on t,h e south side of the rock It was arranged that Mrs. HartHughes should dive next day in an attempt to swim through the passage into the. heart of th 0 rock. "When she went over- the side of the boat she was absolutely confident of success. She plunged in, disappeared from sight beneath the waters, and was never seen again. Was the treasure there? No on e can say. From the moment that Mrs. HartI Hushes made her discovery, Pate seems to have spread dark wings over the expedition. A sudden tropical storm drov/the boat from the sinister | rock. It reached land after many hours ] Jof peril. When, after some days, th e j party returned to search for their - missing leader, no trace of her body could be found. Unanswered Questions. What had happened to Mrs. HartHughes? Was she a victim of selfdeception? Had she, indeed, found a passage, or had she dived to her death, crushing her skull against the stark wall? Was the passage but a cleft in the rock into which she plunged and became jammed? Or had slie

been attacked and devoured by some tropical sea monster? Turtle divers from Saymon Island — marvellous divers of superhuman endurahce —were asked to dive at the Dock of Iron for the missing woman. They refused the largest bribes. For them the Rock of Iron was a sinister object, to be avoided at all costs/ They pointed out that even the sea birds would not rest upon its gaunt crags. So the mystery of the fate of Mrs. Hart-Hughes remains unsolved. Perhaps some day, using modern diving apparatus men will penetrate into that pirates' treasure.