OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 68, 11 October 1888, Page 2

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

PIRACY, LOVE, AND BURIED TREASURE. ; A ROMANCE OF THE CORAL , ■ ; ISLANDS.., -_ : A romantic story pf flight, piracy, rejected love, buried treasure, and treachery is told in the columns of the Japan Weekly Mail . — ; AN ENGLISH PIRATE AND HIS PEKUVIAN: : ..... LADY LOVE. . ) - . ' In 1823, during a revolution '< in Peru, a number ot wealthy residents' of Lima chartered a brig of 300 tons, to carry to Spain their property: in money and 1 jewellery! and as large quantity of monastic plate. It is'said that, there were doubloons to the value of tWo millions sterling '". a!nd a vast sum in plate. But af tdr the treasure '• was ! o'n bda'rdj arid whfefr iis owners came down to the beach; they found the vessel igone. An Englishman, a lieutenant in the Peruvian Navy, hearing of the intended flight,, had gone on board with a chosen band, and had cut out the brig within hail of a Peruvian man of- war. He steered right across the Pacific, and in course of time reached the Marianne Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, where the treasure was buried. A course was then made for Honolulu; ■ But. before reaching this port quarrels/ bjofce out among the pirates, and the lieutenant, with his two officers and a" cabin boy, "fiavingset'fire to the Vessel,'got into a boat and left the drew. One of the officers was murdered and thrown overboard before the boat reached j Honolulu. There the .-party -, represented themselves as the survivors of j a shipping: disaster, The lieutenant, i before leaving Lima, had been! in love with a lady, the wife of a Peruvian officer whowas slain in the revolution, and before taking, any farther steps with regard to the treasure, decided to send for her. The cabin'' boy was despatched as. his emjssary to Lima, but on. h;s arrival there he was seized and imprisoned, and the lady refused to have anything further to do with a). man: whom she 'styled; a detestable | pirate. QUITE IN THE OLD TRANSPONTJN.E STYU, . The lieutenant and hissole retnaining companion thereupon chartered a small fore and, aft, schooner,, ,. the Swallow, commanded by oni Captain Thompson, and proceeded to the Marlan.ri.eß f ftp hid . treasure. : Thompson tried hard to get a charter for a^ specified port or ports, but the lieutenant insisted on a broad charter, including any or all the Mariannes. One, evening when they were in sight of, the islands, the lieutenant, who was sitting on (> Jee.rpail chatting with his companion, was, it is conjeciu'red^ tipped overboard by the latter and disappered, The usual alarm was raised, but the lieutenant's body was never recovered. Thompson, from sundry scraps of conversation which he had overheard, having suspected the object of the voyage, overhauled the dead lieutenant's effects, and among them found a chart of the island on which the tre.3su.r9 was hidden, bu^ with $\q omitted, Sfiqn afterwards he sighted another brig, with the master of which he was acquainted, and they arranged to search for the treasure and divide it between them, giving the surviving pirate a share on condition that he consented to ooint out the spot, but with a threat if he did not do so he would forthwith be handed over to the . Spanish authorities. At a concerted moment the pirate was seized by both captains, and the conditions named. He nodded. They asked him if he would indioato the situation ctf the treasure. Ho nodded. ; They asked if this was the island, pointing to the nearest of the group. He again nodded. They invited him to atep into a boat whioh had been lowered and guide them to the treasure. He nodded onoe more. Afterwards he went below and filled his pockets with lead and iron. Then, going down tfie ladder, he pushed off the boat with one foot from the side of the schooner, and dropped feet first into, the sea. Until wjtftju two years ago there was alive one pi the boat's crew, who, snatching at the suicide's hair, to save him as he sank, , plucked fro.m. his head a handful of ha«\ hut could not raise the heavily- weighted body. This put an end to the treasure hunting. The chart went into the possession of the Spanish authoritias. :■ . THE SEARCHING SHIP SEIZED TN TURN. The . British schooner Nereid cently sailed from, japan as far as Guam, a small Island belonging t© the Marianne, group, in seajoh of the, \

burijsd treasure. ';Bli^ >vMie^ th^^ptairi, who intended tb^ailfor Yap, in the Carpiiries,,was^qh shcire, it;;w,as carried ofl^bv; eithet^jy his; inate4^r two Japatiesej r #| bj^|ill t^ese being £nei ; ohlyjpersSiis' Wn oolEMi^P no trace of thfe\yessel has been found; there is still some mystery about the affair. Meanwhile the captain of the Nereid, who holds or believes he holds thef cjuflito^J^rsecter ftjr j[ll } thi«P wleiltM Bad, lost Wer#thiM. ever may be thought of this extra--ordinaryf storyf whath is- beyondr any question, says the Japan Mail, is .that an English shipmaster in Yokohama, j^hejwmtnencem^ year, sent" out. in a schooner, built under his own supervision and belonging to himself, to search for the treasure supposed to be hidden more than" sixty ye£ra'ago r tfmong! the coral islands of the North Pacific, and that his crew ran away with his vessel and have not since been heard of. possibly they, tpOjT having .some suspicion of tHe object ot'the voyageVdetelniiiied to recover the treasure on therr^o|wn account. The story 'above summarised was taken down from the moutfy of the captain himself; ;