PIRATE TREASURE

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 10

PIRATE TREASURE

SIR MALCOM CAMPBELL’S GREATEST ADVENTURE A HAUNTED ISLAND When a man like Sir Malcolm Campbe.ll writes a book called ‘ My Greatest Adventure ’ wo may take it for granted that it is no ordinary adventure ho describes (says' ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). It was a treasure he was after—pirate treasure buried on Cocos Island, iii the Pacific, reputed to be worth anything between seven million and twenty million pounds. “ There are,” says Sir Malcolm, " three treasures hidden on Cocos.” The first is that of Captain Edward Davis, a partner with Dampier in his privateering adventures, when ho blockaded tho Ray of Panama and sacked tho City of Leon in Nicaragua in 1685. The second is that of Benito Bonito, “ Bonito of the Bloody Sword,” a pirate of the early eighteen hundreds, and tho third is tho famous treasure of the City of Lima, which was buried on Cocos in about 1821 by a Captain Thompson, a Scotch merchant skipper, who turned pirate and joined Bonito on tho high seas. It was the chance possession of a chart complete with clues (so many paces in a certain direction, turn looking due north, and so on) belonging to this Captain Thompson that five years ago sent Sir Malcolm off adventuring on Mr K. Leo Guinness’s yacht. INFLUENCE FOR EVIL. The Cocos treasure has an unsavoury history in which bloody murder and base treachery have played an all too important part. No wonder it is said to be tainted, and the island on which it is buried haunted. More than once Sir Malcolm speaks of tho island’s “ undeniable influence for evil.” This evil influence even affected his dog. One night when Sir Malcolm was sleeping on the island the animal leapt to his feet with a terrifying howl and dashed to tho open flap of tho tent door, barking and chattering with rage and fear. Ho was almost beside himself. I have never seen a dog in such a paroxysm of terror. It was as though he had seen a ghost. He stood there barking and yapping into tho blackness of tho night, every hair on end, his voice vibrant with fear and defiance. Although lie found nothing. Sir Malcolm admits that ho “ had tho feeling

that somewhere in tho blackness someone was watching.” A LOST .RACE.

Three times after this the same thing happened in tho middle of the night. What was tho reason of tho dog’s terror? Sir Malcolm puts forward a theory that, though interesting, seems barely credible in the twentieth century. It is that the old legend of the island being still inhabited by a lost race of Incas is true, and that scouts were sent down every night to spy on tho intruders. Cocos is roughly six nautical miles long and almost as many wide, and contains peaks over two thousand feet high, probably never climbed by any whilo man. But whatever tho explanation may be, Cocos is an uncanny place. During tho last hundred years it lias seen eighteen or twenty expeditions. Practically every one has mot with disaster or dissension among its members. AH have been fruitless. Even Sir Malcolm's party met with a series of misfortunes that would have daunted most men. But even if little was accomplished on the island, Sir Malcolm has produced a first-rate book on adventure. And it is significant to find tho last chapter headed, ‘An Rovoir to Cocos Island.’ Sir Malcolm is already making plans to return.