ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 407, 2 October 1889, Page 5

ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.

A cortiespoxdext of the ' St. James's Gazette ' s«nds from Jamaica the following accoar.b of the finding of a treasure and the" treacherous murder of most of the lindere. This occurrence, which happened in the latter pa^fc of 1887, has only recently been brought to light ; and the correspondent states that he ha? h : m«self seen the man who took a principal part in the discovery, and heard the story from him. It is as follows :—: — Jebkmiah Williams, a Negro.

was captain of a sloop calkd the Maud, with a crew of four hand?. The oourae of their trade took them to the Spanish Main and finally they found themselves in the Rio Indio, about thirty miles from Colon. Having disposed of their cargo, they were on the point of departure, when, on endeavouring to \voigh anchor, they found it had got foul of something at the bottom of the river, and it became necessary to dive down to cleafc it ; or, to use Williams' own words, ' The anchor was foul, and we could not suy how. I took off my clothes and went down to save tho anchor. I found it was

Hooked into a Chain' that was. lying jib the bottom. ] felt round where the chain was and felt a foundation, tlut, and the chain round ib.' He se ltdown the rest of the crew to see what he had found, and then mentioned fche find to one Danez, the Governor of the Riolndio settlement. Danes had never heard of anything being in the river ; so he told them they had better stop and se© what it was, and that if it was of value, they should get their share. They then took steps to lift it off the bottom. Th6y broke the chain and found there were Four Irox Chests Borxn Together by it. As described by Williams : 'We took our fore throat-halliard and made a bigr strap, and went down and tried to dig under the foundation, but could not. Then we made a bight and got it sideways over one of the safes. We tried our lift, but it was too heavy ; so we put it on the windlass and hove on that. With the fore threat and jib halliards wo hove two streaks of the starboard side of the deck under water. We then put a breast-line, one forward and one aft, and breasted the sloop into shore till she stuck. Then we took tackle from her, and parbuckled one safe up on shore. Then I wanted to open ib and s«ee what was inside ; bat as the others wanted to get it all up before night we got the four out of the water. We then opened one on the river-bank and found that it was

" Full of Baks of Gold." Danoz sent immediately to the Governor of Colon, and next day that functionary arrived with some soldiers. As soon as Danez heard of their arrival he called Williams on shore, saying that he had something to say to him before the Governor saw him. Williams accordingly went to Danez's residence ; but no sooner did ho put his foot inside the door than he was struck on the head with a machete (a kind of cutlass in common ute in Central America and the West Indies). He cried out for help, and tried to run away, but was cut down from behind. Hearing his criee, tho four men on the sloop rushed u> help him, but were Instantj»y Shox Dead by tile Soldiers who had meanwhile come up. Williams, in a much wounded condition, was carried off to Colon and immediately imprisoned ; which was all the share in the treasure he has ever got. In prison he remained for ;a year befo c effecting his escape, and had only now succeeded in reaching Jamaica. There the authorities have taken Bteps to sift the matter, and if Williams is really speaking the truth we are likely to hear more of it. Blobbs : " Is Smith regular in his habits now ?'•' Jones : M Quito regular ; but hia habits are bad." Miss Charity: "Is your husband addicted to the use of alcoholic stimulants ?" Recipient of Alma: "No, indado, mum ; not he. His only failin' is drinkin'." The Spiritualist's motto — Est modws in rebus. There is a medium in everything. Before marriage woman deifies man, after marriage she defies him. That i& the difference. A Spartan was asked how he attained such great age. "I was not acquainted with any doctor," he replied. Spanish jackets, made of the same materials as the dress, are the newest thing for young ladies, who do not like to go on the promenade without something extra over the plain walking dress.

Speaking of the Edinburgh demonstration on the occasion of the presentation to Mr Parnell, the London •' Times " says :— "There can be no doubt of the success of this demonstration estimated by numbers and by enthusiasm. Itmaybesaid with some truth that the .most marked feature of today's meeting: — of Mr l'urn ell's reception as a whole — was that it contained more of the •masses' than of the 'classes.' At the same time it is noteworthy that the important part of the proceedings, which consisted in the presentation of addresses from some 150 Liberal associations in all parts of Scotland — brought to the front a goodly number of representative Scotchmen."