SPANISH TREASURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 22 September 1925, Page 5

SPANISH TREASURE.

FOUND AND LOST AGAIN, j ROMANCE OF THE PACIFIC. I SUWARROW ISLAND MYSTERY. There is something romantic attach-, ing to old Spanish coins, round which so ! many stories of lost treasure have been I written. Mention was made last week in the "Star" of a Spanish coin, dated; 1776, which was received by a young man from a native in the course of trade at Apia. Samoa. At the time a guess was hazarded that the coin was a ! souvenir of the La Perouse expedition j to the Pacific 130 years ago. But Mrs. I Hooper, of Takapuna, writes recalling' that in IS7G her uncle. Mr. Henry Abbot - Mair, made a find of hidden Spanish treasure at Suwarrow 1-la.nd and lost it again, retaining only four or live "pieces of eight,"' or Spanish silver dollars minted in the Spanish possession of Mexico. One of these coins is now in Mrs. Hooper's possession, and is exactly similar to tiie coin which turned up recently at Apia, except that the date is 1775. and it is her belief that someone must have unearthed the treasure-chest first found by Mr. Mair and have lo*t one of the coins in the course of a call at Apia, the nearest points of civilisation to the lonely island of Suwarrow. There is nothing unlikely or fantastic about this theory." Suwgrrow is a lonely and uninhabited island about 500 miles to the east of Apia. The story of its hidden treasure was told in the columns of this paper in January of last year, j being a narrative by Captain Gilbert i Mair of what his brother Henry had told , him. Tn 1876, when Mr. Henry Mair was acting as a supercargo and agent for j the Island traders Henderson and Mac- j farlane there was a dispute between the firm and Captain Sterndale, who had been left on Suwarrow. which was U.ed as a trade depot. Captain Sterndale, i. was said, desired to look on the island as his private estate, and the firm wished to have him removed, resulting in resistance on liis part and the holding of his ground with a show of force. Henry Mair was supercargo on the brig Ryno. sent down to remove Captain Sterndale. and being friendly with the j captain he slipped overboard at night j and swam ashore when the brig had got . to Suwarrow. As he reached the sandy shore the only thing moving was a turtle | dicing in the sand to lay eggs, and a metallic sound caused Mr. Mair to take j a close look at the spot. He found that the turtle had happened on hidden trea- j sure in the shape of a large number of Spanish silver coins, and he also found , I a small box containing a number of rings \ and other jewellery. His only article j of clothing was his singlet, which he tied ' at the waist with his belt, and this was ■ filled three times with the silver, which he removed to another spot and re-buried together with the jewellery, apa-rt from r several silver coins he slipped under his j belt and some rings he put on his ; fingers. He then went on to Captain I Sterndale's habitation and helped him in • standing off a siege from the brig until j eventually the partie. called an armis- j tice, and Captain Sterndale agreed to go j to Auckland and have the dispute adjusted with the civil authorities. This was the statement made by Mr. j Henry Mair to his brother some time later." The "Suwarrow affair" created a j stir in the papers at the time, but the; dispute fizzled out with the return of | Captain Sterndale, as the New Zealand i authorities declined to take up the j matter on the ground thait Lt was outside ; their jurisdiction. Mr. Mair stated that j he entered into negotiations to return in a cutter for the treasure, but these broke down owing to a demand on the part of the owner of the cutter for half the treasure. Apparently the negotia- j tions and the appearance of the rings. on his fingers set others-looking over the; island, but he did not hear of anyone ; being successful. He kept the matter in i mind, waiting for a good chance to get back, he said in relating the story to his brother. Shortly after this time, however, he was killed when accompanying the recruiting schooner Isabella in a trip to the New Hebrides, and with him died the secret of the hidden treasure of Suwarrow Island. In telling the story. Mr. Mair mentioned that there was reason to believe the treasure had come out of a Spanish galleon which had sailed from Peru, and had been cast ashore on Suwarrow by a mutinous crew. There were traces of an old fort found on the island by Captain Sterndale's workers, with concrete floor and walls. and in breaking up these concrete blocks some of the workers had come across a human skeleton embedded in one of tihem. ' Suwarrow is now one of the Pacific islands attached to New Zealand, and is uninhabited, being visited only at times by Government ships for the purpose of maintaining a relief depot for shipwrecked sailors.