DUTCH GOLD

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20961, 15 September 1933, Page 10

DUTCH GOLD

s HUNT FOR TREASURE IN J AUSTRALIA 1 WRECK OF 1656 r t (TUOH OL'B OVV.V COHKESPOKKeKT.) e SYDNEY, September 5. The romance and glamour of oldtime treasure hunts are recalled by a message from Perth that a police trooper and guide are breaking an arduous trail through almost impenetrable scrub south of Dongarra, . in the wilds of Western Australia, . searching for a cairn believed to j mark the burial place of a treasure a of 78,000 guilders (roughly £6500) ~ saved from the wreck of the Dutch ~ ship de Verguilde Draeck in 1656. s Alfred Burt, son of a former Chief i Justice of Western Australia, and c the late Harry Ogbourne found the i cairn 60 years ago while engaged on / an Admiralty survey of the Western - Australian coast. It was in a small s clearing ringed about with white i stones. Later, reading of the wreck of the de Verguilde Draeck (the - Golden Dragon) on a reef on the t coast 60 miles south of the ringed space, Burt associated his discovery with the sea tragedy of 200 years earlier. Then followed the finding, in a cave north of the Moore river, - of a handful of corroded coins dated 3 between 1618 and 1648. Nearby was ' a skeleton which crumbled to dust { when it was touched. It was as- > sumed that this was the remains 3 of a survivor who had left the main * party to seek help, and who carried a number of the coins with him.

Old Dutchman's Treasure. The ringed clearing then became a clue to the resting place pf the old Dutchman's treasure, and although nearly 80 years old, Burt has made two courageous but fruitloss attempts to rediscover the spot. Corroboration of the existence of the clearing and the stones came from an old resident of Dongarra; and an other remembered a long line of stones pointing like an arrow to the clearing. Now news is awaited eagerly from the trooper and guide who are investigating along the line indicated by the stones. Historic documents reveal that the de Verguilde Draeck lost 118 men when she was wrecked on April 28, 1656. There were 69 immediate survivors, but repeated searches revealed no trace of them or of the treasure which the carried. vitrt'c storv is that he Rave no farther thourht to the discovery of the stories until the discovery at Moore river years later again brought the whole matter to his mind. Since then Burt has made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the site—one with Maxwell Lefroy, Government inspecting surveyor, and one with a trooper and a bushman. He is anxiously awaiting news of the latest expedition*