ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 408, 5 October 1889, Page 6

ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.

A correspondent of the ' St. James's. Gazette ' sends lrom Jamaica the following account of the finding, of a treasure and the treacherous murder of most ot the finders. This occurrence, which happened in , the latter part of 1 887, has only recently been brought to light ; and the correspondent states that he has himself seen the man who took a principal part in the discovery, and heard the story from him. It is as , follows : —

■ Jeremiah Williams,, a Negro, was captain of a sloop called the Maud> with a crew of four hand?. The course 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 ot departure, when, on endeavouring to weigh anchor, they found it had got foul of something at the bottom of the river, and it became necessary to dive down to cleat it ; or, to use Williams' own words, 4 The anchor was foul, 1 and we could not say how. I took off my clothes and went down to save the anchor: I found it was

Hooked into a Chain that was lying ab the bottom. I felt round whore the chain was and felt a foundation, flat, and the chain round it.' He sent down the rest of the crew to see what he had found, and then mentioned the find bo one j Danez, the Governor of the Riolndio settle ment. Danez had never heard of anything being in the river ; so he told them they had better stop and see what it Was, and that if it was of value, they fahould get their share. They then took steps to lift it off the bottom. Th6y broke the chain and found there were Four Iron Chests Bound Together by it. As described by Williams : 'We took our fore throat-halliard and made a big: strap, and went down and tried to dig under the foundation, bub could not. Then we made a bight and got it tideways over one of the safes. We tried our lift, bub it was too heavy ; so we put it on the windlass and hove on that. With the fore throat and jib halliards we 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 bill she stuck. Then we took tackle from her, and parbuckled one safe up on shore. Then I wanted to open it and see what was inside ; bat as the others wanted to get ib 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." Danez sent immediately to the Governor of Colon, and next day that functionary arrived with souie> soldiers. As soon as Dane/, heard of their arrival he called Williams on shore, saying that he had something to say to him before the Governor aaw him. Williams accordingly went to Danez's residence ; but no sooner did he put his foot inside the door than he was struck on the head with a machete (a kind of cutlass in common use in Central Ameiica and the West Indies). He cried out for help, and tried to run away, but was cut down from behind. Hearing his cries, the four men on the sloop rushed to help him, but wero INSTANTLY SHOI DEAD BY THE SoLDIEKS 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 before effecting his escape, and had only now succeeded in reaching Jamaica. There the authorities have taken steps to sift the matter, and if Williams is really speaking the truth we are likely to hear more of it.