PRACTICAL HINTS FOR TREASURE SEEKERS
Faith, imagination, and a vigorous physique comprise the essential
equipment of a treasure seeker. Capital is desirable, but not
absolutely necessary, for it would be hard indeed to find a
neighborhood in which some legend or other of buried gold is not
current. If one is unable to finance an expedition aboard a swift,
black-hulled schooner, it is always possible to dig for the treasure of
poor Captain Kidd and it is really a matter of small importance that he
left no treasure in his wake. The zest of the game is in seeking. A
pick and a shovel are to be obtained in the wood-shed or can be
purchased at the nearest hardware store for a modest outlay. A
pirate's chart is to be highly esteemed, but if the genuine article
cannot be found, there are elderly seafaring men in every port who will
furnish one just as good and perjure themselves as to the information
thereof with all the cheerfulness in the world.
It has occurred to the author that a concise directory of the
best-known lost and buried treasure might be of some service to persons
of an adventurous turn of mind, and the following tabloid guide for
ready reference may perhaps prove helpful, particularly to parents of
small boys who have designs on pirate hoards, as well as to boys who
have never grown up.
_Cocos Island_. In the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica.
Twelve million dollars in plate, coin, bar gold, and jewels buried by
buccaneers and by seamen who pirated the treasure of Lima.
_Trinidad_. In the South Atlantic off the coast of Brazil. The vast
booty of sea-rovers who plundered the richest cities of South America.
A very delectable and well-authenticated treasure, indeed, with all the
proper charts and appurtenances. Specially recommendeded.
_The Salvages_. A group of small islands to the southward of Madeira.
Two million dollars of silver in chests, buried by the crew of a
Spanish ship in 1804. They killed their captain and laid him on top of
the treasure, wherefore proper precautions must be taken to appease his
ghost before beginning to dig.
_Cape St. Vincent_. West coast of Madagascar. The wreck of a
Dutch-built ship of great age is jammed fast between the rocks. Gold
and silver money has been washed from her and cast up on the beach, and
a large fortune still remains among her timbers. Expeditions are
advised to fit out at Mozambique.
_Venanguebe Bay_, thirty-five miles south south-west of Ngoncy Island
on the east coast of Madagascar. A sunken treasure is supposed to be
not far from the wreck of the French frigate _Gloire_ lost in 1761.
Expeditions will do well to keep a weather eye lifted along all this
coast for the treasures of the pirates who infested these waters in the
days of Captain Kidd.
_Gough Island_, sometimes called Diego Alvarez. Latitude 40 deg. 19' S.
Longitude 9 deg. 44' W. It is well known that on this unfrequented bit
of sea-washed real estate, a very wicked pirate or pirates deposited
ill-gotten gains. The place to dig is close to a conspicuous spire or
pinnacle of stone on the western end of the island, the name of which
natural landmark is set down on the charts as Church Rock.
_Juan Fernandez_. South Pacific. Famed as the abode of Robinson
Crusoe who was too busy writing the story of his life to find the
buccaneer's wealth concealed in a cave, also the wreck of a Spanish
galleon reputed to have been laden with bullion from the mines of Peru.
_Auckland Islands_. Remote and far to the southward and hardly to be
recommended to the amateur treasure seeker who had better serve his
apprenticeship nearer home. Frequently visited by expeditions from
Melbourne and Sydney. In 1866, the sailing ship _General Grant_, bound
from Australia to London, was lost here. In her cargo were fifty
thousand 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 people managed to escape. They lived for eighteen
months on this desert island before being taken off. The hulk of the
_General Grant_ is still within the cave, but the undertow and the
great combers have thus far baffled the divers.
_Luzon_. One of the Philippine Islands. Near Calumpit, in the swamps
of the Rio Grande, the Chinese Mandarin, Chan Lee Suey, buried his
incalculable wealth soon after the British captured Manila in 1762.
His jewels were dazzling, and a string of pearls, bought from the
Sultan of Sulu, was said to be the finest in the Orient.
_Nightingale Island_. Near Tristan da Cunha. South Atlantic. One
chest of pirate's silver was found here and brought to the United
States, but much more is said to remain hidden.
_Tobermory Bay_. Island of Mull. Western Scotland. Wreck of the
galleon _Florencia_ of the Spanish Armada. Said to have contained
thirty millions of treasure. Permission to investigate must be
obtained from His Grace, the Duke of Argyll.
_Vigo Bay_. Coast of Spain. Spanish plate fleet sunk by the English
and Dutch. A trifling matter of a hundred million dollars or more are
waiting for the right man to come along and fish them up. Treasure
seekers had better first consult the Spanish Government at Madrid in
order to avoid misunderstandings with the local officials.
_East River_. Manhattan Island, New York. Wreck of the British
frigate _Hussar_ which carried to the bottom, in 1780, more than two
and a half million dollars in gold consigned to the paymasters of the
army and naval forces that were fighting the American forces of George
Washington. She was sailing for Newport and struck a rock nearly
opposite the upper end of Randall's Island, sinking one hundred yards
from shore.
_Oak Island_. Nova Scotia. Near Chester. Unmistakable remains of a
deep shaft sunk by pirates and an underground connection with the bay.
A company is now digging, and will probably sell shares at a reasonable
price. Buying shares in a treasure company is less fatiguing than
handling the pick and shovel oneself.
_Isthmus of Panama_. Directions somewhat vague. Sir Francis Drake
left part of the loot of old Panama concealed along his line of
retreat, but none of his crew was considerate enough to transmit to
posterity a chart marked with the proper crosses and bearings.
_Dollar Cove_. Mount's Bay, Cornwall. Wreck of treasure ship _Saint
Andrew_, belonging to the king of Portugal. Driven out of her course
from Flanders to a home port in 1526. An ancient document written by
one Thomas Porson, an Englishman on board states that "by the Grace and
Mercy of God, the greater part of the crew got safely to land," and
that, assisted by some of the inhabitants, they also saved part of the
cargo including blocks of silver bullion, silver vessels and plate,
precious stones, brooches and chains of gold, cloth of Arras, tapestry,
satins, velvets, and four sets of armor for the king of Portugal.
According to Porson, no sooner had these treasures been carried to the
top of the cliffs than three local squires with sixty armed retainers
attacked the shipwrecked men and carried off the booty.
Modern treasure seekers disbelieve this document and prefer the
statement of one of the squires concerned, St. Aubyn by name, that they
rode to the place to give what help they could, but the cargo of
treasure could not be saved.
_Cape Vidal_. Coast of Zululand. Wreck of mysterious sailing vessel
_Dorothea_ said to have had a huge fortune in gold bricks cemented
under his floor, stolen gold from the mines of the Rand. In 1900, May
21st, an item in the Government Estimates of the Legislative Assembly
in the Natal Parliament was discussed under the heading, "Expenditure
in connection with buried gold at Cape Vidal, search for discovery,
L173 19s. 3d." "Mr. Evans asked if a syndicate had been formed and
what expectations the Government had to give. (Hear, hear.) The Prime
Minister said there were several syndicates formed to raise the
treasure. The government had reason to believe that they knew where
the treasure was hidden, and started an expedition on their own
account. But unfortunately they had not been able to find the
treasure. Mr. Evans: The Government was in for a bad spec.
(Laughter.) The item passed."
Space is given to the foregoing because it stamps with official
authority the story of the treasure of Cape Vidal. When a government
goes treasure hunting there must be something in it.
_Lake Guatavita_. Near Bogota. Republic of Colombia. The treasure of
El Dorado, the Gilded Man. To find this gold involves driving a tunnel
through the side of a mountain and draining the lake. This is such a
formidable undertaking that it will not appeal to the average treasure
seeker unless, perchance, he might pick up a second hand tunnel
somewhere at a bargain price. Even then, transportation from the sea
coast to Bogota is so difficult and costly that it would hardly be
practicable to saw the tunnel into sections and have it carried over
the mountains on mule-back.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Buried Treasure, by Ralph D. Paine