A ROMANCE OF THE SALVAGES.
The article in the _St. James's Gazette_ attracted a considerable
amount of attention, as was proved by the bewildering mass of
correspondence with reference to the expedition which I received
during the weeks preceding our departure. Many of these letters were
prompted evidently by mere curiosity, others contained suggestions--of
which some were sensible enough; a few, whimsical in the extreme.
Cranks wrote to me who professed to be acquainted with certain methods
for discovering treasure by means of divining rods, or charms, or
other uncanny tricks. Others had dreamt dreams, in which they had seen
the exact position of the wealth; but most curious of all were the
letters from individuals in all parts of Europe and America who were
acquainted with the existence of other treasures, which they proposed
I should search for in the course of my voyage. To have sought them
all would have meant to sail every navigable sea on the face of the
earth, and to have travelled into the heart of continents; in short,
to have undertaken a voyage which would have extended over a century
or so. To have found them all would have necessitated my chartering
all the merchant fleets of Europe to carry them home; and then gold
would have become a valueless drug on the markets, and my labours
would have been all in vain.
One individual modestly asked for 1,000_l._ down before he would give
the slightest hint as to the nature of his treasure or its locality;
but, according to him, there could not be the slightest doubt as to
my finding it, and as one item alone of this pile consisted of ten
million pounds' worth of golden bars, it would be the height of folly
on my part not to send him a cheque for the comparatively ridiculous
sum of 1,000_l._ in return for such information.
Some of these treasure tales were very terrible, and the most
bloodthirsty villains figured in the ghastly narratives. Among my
correspondence I have materials that would supply all our writers of
boys' stories for years.
But in addition to the numerous impossible tales, there were some well
authenticated, and people who had taken an interest in these matters,
and had carefully collected their data, wrote to me concerning several
promising schemes.
A few days before sailing, a retired naval officer residing in Exeter
came to see me at Southampton; he told me he had guessed that our
destination was the islet of Trinidad, and that he was acquainted with
the record of another treasure which had been concealed on a desert
island lying on our route, distant about 1,400 miles from Southampton
and 3,400 from Trinidad; and he thought it would be worth our while to
make a call there, and endeavour to identify the spot.
An outline of this story is given in the 'North Atlantic Directory,'
but the following account was copied by my informant from the
Government documents relating to the matter.
Early in 1813 the then Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to Sir Richard
Bickerton, the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, instructing him to
let a seaman who had given information respecting a hidden treasure be
sent in the first King's ship likely to touch at Madeira, so that the
truth of his story might be put to the test.
The 'Prometheus,' Captain Hercules Robinson, was then refitting at
Portsmouth, and to this officer was entrusted the carrying out of the
Admiralty orders. In his report Captain Robinson states that after
being introduced to the foreign seaman referred to in the above
letter, and reading the notes which had been taken of his information,
he charged him to tell no person what he knew or what was his
business, that he was to mess with the captain's coxswain, and that no
duty would be required of him. To this the man replied that that was
all he desired, that he was willing to give his time, and would ask no
remuneration if nothing resulted from his intelligence.
A few days afterwards the ship sailed, and in a week anchored at
Funchal, Madeira. During the passage, Captain Robinson took occasion
to examine and cross-question the man, whose name was Christian
Cruise, and compare his verbal with his written testimony.
The substance of both was that some years before he was sent to the
hospital in Santa Cruz, with yellow fever, with a Spanish sailor, who
had served for three or four voyages in the Danish merchant ship in
which Cruise was employed. He was in a raging fever, but,
notwithstanding, recovered. The Spaniard, though less violently ill,
sank under a gradual decay, in which medical aid was unavailing, and,
a few days before his death, told Cruise he had something to disclose
which troubled him, and accordingly made the following statement.
He said that in 1804 he was returning in a Spanish ship from South
America to Cadiz, with a cargo of produce and about two millions of
dollars in chests, that when within a few days' sail of Cadiz they
boarded a neutral, who told them that their four galleons had been
taken by a squadron of English frigates, war having been declared, and
that a cordon of cruisers from Trafalgar to Cape Finisterre would make
it impossible for any vessel to reach Cadiz, or any other Spanish
port. What was to be done? Returning to South America was out of the
question, and the captain resolved to try back for the West Indies,
run for the north part of the Spanish Main or some neutral island, and
have a chance thus of saving at least the treasure with which he was
intrusted. The crew, who preferred the attempt of making Cadiz, were
all but in a state of mutiny. But they acquiesced in the proceeding,
and, keeping out of the probable track of cruisers, reached a few
degrees to the southward of Madeira, where they hoped to meet the
trade-winds.
They had familiarised their minds to plans of resistance and outrage,
but had not the heart to carry them into effect, till, one daybreak,
they found themselves off a cluster of small uninhabited islands fifty
leagues to the southward of Madeira, and nearly in its longitude, the
name of which the narrator did not know. The central island, about
three miles round, was high, flat and green at top, but clearly
uninhabited; the temptation was irresistible: here was a place where
everything might be hidden; why run risks to avoid the English, in
order to benefit their captain and the owners? why not serve
themselves? The captain was accordingly knocked on the head, or
stabbed and carried below, and the ship hauled in to what appeared the
anchorage on the south side of the island. There they found a snug
little bay, in which they brought up, landed the chests of dollars,
and cut a deep trench in the white sand above high-water mark, and
buried the treasure and covered it over, and, some feet above the
chests, deposited in a box the body of their murdered captain. They
then put to sea, resolving to keep well to the southward, and try to
make the Spanish Main, or a neutral island, run the ship on shore and
set her on fire, agree on some plausible lie, and with the portion of
the money which they retained and carried on their persons they were
to purchase a small vessel, and, under English or other safe colours,
to revisit their hoard, and carry it off at once or in portions. In
time, they passed Tobago, and in their clumsy, ignorant navigation,
while it was blowing hard, ran on an uninhabited cay on which the ship
went to pieces, and only two lives were saved. These got to Santa Cruz
or St. Thomas, one died, and the other was the seaman who made the
statement to Christian Cruise. The name of the ship, the owners, the
port she sailed from, the exact date, or various other particulars by
which the truth might be discovered, were not told to Christian
Cruise, or not remembered.
Captain Robinson gave at length, and in a quaint old-fashioned way,
his impressions as to the _bona fides_ of Cruise. He says:--'May
he not have some interested object in fabricating this story? Why did
he not tell it before? Is not the cold-blooded murder inconceivable
barbarity, and the burying the body over the treasure too dramatic and
buccaneer-like? or might not the Spaniard have lied from love of lying
and mystifying his simple shipmate, or might he not have been raving?'
Captain Robinson then thus satisfactorily replies to his own queries:
'As to the first difficulty, I had the strongest conviction of the
honesty of Christian Cruise, and I think I could hardly be grossly
deceived as to his character, and his disclaiming any reward unless
the discovery was made went to confirm my belief that he was an honest
man. And then, as to his withholding his information for four or five
years, be it remembered that the war with Denmark might truly have
shut him out from any possibility of intercourse with England. Next,
as to the wantonness and indifference with which the murder was
perpetrated: I am afraid there is no great improbability in this; with
self-interest in the scales, humanity is but as dust in the balance. I
have witnessed a disregard of human life in matters of promotion in
our service, etc., even among men of gentle blood, which makes the
conduct of these Spaniards under vehement temptation, and when they
could do as they pleased, sufficiently intelligible. But, certainly,
the coffin over the treasure looked somewhat theatrical, had given it
the air of Sadler's Wells or a novel, rather than matter of fact. I
inquired, therefore, from Christian why the body was thus buried, and
he replied that he understood the object was, that in case any person
should find the marks of their proceeding, and dig to discover what
they had been about, they might come to the body and go no further.
Then, as to the supposition of the Spaniard lying from mere
_mechancete_, this conduct would be utterly out of keeping in an
ignorant Spanish seaman. But, lastly, he might have been raving, and
on this point I was particular in my inquiries. Cruise said,
'Certainly not, he was quite clear in his mind; his conscience might
be troubled, but his head was not disturbed,' and it is conceivable
enough that this dying criminal might have been able to bring into
such correct review, as he was stated to have done, these portions of
his dark history. The result of my inquiries and cogitations on the
subject was, that the probability was strongly in favour of the
substantial truth of this romance of real life, that I considered
would be still further substantiated if the _locus in quo_, the
Salvages (for to them alone the latitude and longitude pointed),
corresponded with the account given of the tomb of the dollars.'
Captain Robinson goes on to state that he inquired at Madeira whether
anything had ever been picked up at the Salvages, and was informed
that some years before the taffrail of a foreign ship had been found
there and two boxes of dollars. Being unable to obtain any precise
information, he then proceeded for the islands. On arriving off the
Great Salvage, they found it was about a league in circumference, flat
at top, and green with salsola or saltwort and other alcalescent
plants; and on hauling round the east point opened up a sandy bay with
white beach and the little level spot above high-water mark just as
they wanted to find it. Captain Robinson asked Christian, 'Will this
do?' and the man replied, 'No doubt, sir, it must be the place.' The
captain then sent for the officers, and, pledging them to secrecy that
others might not interfere with them, told them all the story, but
desired them to announce only half the truth to the men--namely, that
they were in search of a murdered man who was supposed to be buried
somewhere above high-water mark. Fifty or sixty of the ship's crew
were then landed, provided with all the shovels there were on board,
and boarding-pikes; and to encourage them they were told that the
discoverer of the coffin should have a reward of one hundred dollars.
Their embarrassment, however, was now extreme; the white sand extended
round the bay, and a large area intervened between the high-water and
the foot of the cliff, which a month would not turn up. They selected
the centre of the beach and went beyond high-water mark to where
Captain Robinson thought the breaking of the sea and the drainage
through the sand might terminate, and where a man would be likely to
drop his burden, and then they dug a deep hole, but with no greater
success than finding some broken shells and rounded pebbles. The men
in the meanwhile were probing with their boarding-pikes in all
directions, and digging in every promising spot. This went on for
several hours, and finally the captain abandoned the search and
ordered the boats on board, and, as night was approaching, and the
ship's situation unsafe, hoisted them in, weighed, and stood out of
the bay and shaped course for Madeira. On arriving at Funchal they
found other orders and occupation, and had no opportunity of
revisiting the spot before their return to England. Nor did the
Admiralty of the day, on receiving Captain Robinson's report, think it
worth while to prosecute the matter further.
In conclusion, Captain Robinson remarks that, 'In favour of the
affirmative view, there is the apparent honesty, fairness, candour,
and clear-headedness of Christian Cruise, as well as the entire
correspondence of the place with that described; and opposed to this
are the many motives to falsehood, deceit, and self-interest in some
obscure shape, or even mere love of lying; or it may be the ravings of
lunacy and the wonderful plausibility of perverted reason. If I am
asked for my own opinion, I would say that my judgment leans, as I
have already declared, to the probability of some transaction having
taken place, so much so that I certainly think it worth the while of
any yachtsman to try what this might turn up.'
My informant from Exeter told me that he had sailed by these islands
close in shore while he was serving in the navy, and he gave me an
account of their appearance. He said he had perceived men on the Great
Salvage, and understood that Portuguese or other fishermen visit the
island at one season of the year in order to catch and salt down the
fish that abound in the surrounding sea. He did not consider that
there was ever a large body of these men on the island, so that in the
event of our digging there and discovering the treasure, our party
would be strong enough, well armed as we were, to protect and carry it
off in spite of any opposition that might be offered.
As my informant pointed out, one curious feature in this vague and not
very encouraging tale of hidden treasure was that the foreign seaman,
according to the report, stated that the chests of dollars were landed
on the middle island, whereas Captain Robinson prosecuted his search
on the Great Salvage, or northernmost island.
The Salvages consist of three islands, of which the middle one, known
as the Great Piton, is the largest; and if the man's tale be true, it
is on this island that the treasure should be sought.
It would not be worth while to fit out an expedition to the Salvages
on such evidence as this; 'but,' argued my informant, 'as you must
pass near the group with your vessel, it would not delay you much to
discover whether any bay answering to the man's description exists on
the south side of the Great Piton.'
I told this gentleman that I would put the matter before my
companions, and that in case they agreed to this deviation from our
original scheme, we would, if possible, land on the Great Piton and
explore the likely portions of the sands for the chests of dollars.
Seeing that the Salvages, adjacent as they are to both Madeira and the
Canaries, might belong to either Spain or Portugal--though I could
find no record of such being the case--I thought it prudent to keep
this portion of our programme a secret; for the publication of our
intentions in the papers might attract the attention of those who laid
claim to the islets and cause them to interfere with our operations.
Consequently, when we sailed only three men knew whither we were
bound, and I said nothing about the Salvages until we had been two
days at sea, when I repeated the whole story to my companions after
dinner. They were unanimously of opinion that we should visit the
island and see what could be done there. Our course was accordingly
shaped for it. We talked over the possibility of our finding foreign
fishermen on the Salvages, and some of my companions proposed that in
this case we should take charge of their boats for them during our
stay, so that they would have no means of communicating with their
countries and giving notice of our arrival. Having thus, as it were,
taken temporary possession of the island, we were to compel the
fishermen to dig for us at a reasonable rate of pay--a somewhat
high-handed proceeding, but the suggestion at any rate showed that
there were those among my crew who would not be deterred by small
difficulties, when impelled by the prospect of discovering gold.
I was unable to take a bill of health for our first port of call, as I
did not myself know what it would be, our stoppages on the way out
entirely depending on our necessities, such as want of water or
repairs of any damage to the vessel. If it had been possible to have
done so I would have called at no inhabited place until the
termination of the expedition; but I was well aware that the lack of
something or other would sooner or later drive us into port. I
accordingly procured a bill of health for Sydney; not that I had the
slightest intention of going there, but I knew that this document
would satisfy the authorities of any place at which I was likely to
call for stores: every harbour on either side of the Atlantic can be
considered as being more or less on the way to Australia, and on
entering a port a vise of our bill of health would be all that was
necessary; for there is no law against zigzagging across the world to
one's destination in a leisurely fashion if one chooses to do so.