LURE OF PIRATE GOLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 December 1927, Page 11

LURE OF PIRATE GOLD

T IIE search for buried treasure goes on for ever. Hundreds of years after the pirate and buccaneers roamed the Spanish -Minin, expeditions are still going out with high hope of discovering the gold and jewels and pieces of eight they are traditionally supposed to have hidden. Once in a great while the expeditions are successful, in spite of the amused smiles of the world at large, and each such success inevitably prompts others to try their luck in the search for some cached Eldorado. The latest expedition, a dispatch from San Francisco states, is headed Inlands Morgan, a Texan descendant of 'Sir Henry Morgan’s. Sir Henry was a celebated buccaneer of the seventeenth century. The Morgan expedition will go to Central America in search of some of the loot which Sir Henry’s followers carried away after the sack of the 'City of Panama in 1671. Tradition has it that they buried valuable booty somewhere near a bayou in the region of Darien Bay. Sir Henry’s capture of the City of Panama was one of the most spectacu- I lor exploits of his career. As a feat of anus it was notable for its sheer audacity. His men, although stalwart lighters, were lieavilly outnumbered at the start, and bitterly opposed. The fears of the inhabitants were not groundless.. After taking the city the captors pillaged it. Historians have arraigned Sir Henry Morgan for the cruelty and debauchery practised by his men. And at the time the episode did'not pass unrebuked. The fact that England and Spain were temporarily at peace added to the gravity of the situation. Sir Henry was ordered to return to England under arrest, to explain his actions He was not long under a cloud, however, for he was a general favourite at Court, and his services to his King had always been notable. Sir Henry was forgiven, as he had been before. What happened to the loot taken from Panama City, history does not satisfactorily explain. But Louis Morgan; who is going to search for it, has announced that he will be guided by a map, said to have been left to his

ANOTHER EXPEDITION

i descedants by Sir Henry. The parchment on which the drawing was made came to the present owner from his father, Frank Pierce Morgan, the District. Attorney of Victoria, Texas. The story is that eight of Sir Henry’s men buried the loot for their leader, and that, as they were later murdered, only . Sir Henry knew where it was. Louis I Morgan furthermore says that a distant relative of his is at present ransacking ithe ruins of- the old city of Panama—which gives to the search the aspect of a family contest for family heirlooms. Louis Morgan’s expedition will,-ac-cording to dispatches, set sail on the -Rift auxiliary launch Saxon. He Avill be accompanied by Captain A. Pearson, a veteran skipper, They hope to obtain permission from officials of the Republic of Panama to make excavations at the spot indicated on the map. The life of Sir Henry' Morgan has been written many times; it always preseats new angles to tempt the historical writer. so lfianv of the great Elizabethan sea captains, he was not a Devon man, nor even, strictly speaking, an Englishman. He was born in Wales in 1(535. It is believed that when a boy he was kidnapped and sold as a slave iu the Barbados, and later on in Jamaica. He himself denied this report. At any.rate, lie went out to the colonies when very young, and grew up there. Sir Henry’s early career as a sailor and fighter attracted so much attention that by 1668, when he had already attained a measure of fame, Sir Thomas jlMoyfo.rd. the (Governor ■of commissioned him to go over to the mainland to discover the details of a plot which, it was suspected, was brewing against Jamaica. Sir Henry not only got that information, but- pillaged Principe and captured Porto Bello as well. Next- year he had a ship blown from under him. A year or two later came the exploit at Panama. After occasional reprimands, to check his impetuosity, he was knighted and made Lieutenant-Gover-nor of Jamaica. Though once suspended, he was restored to favour before his death in 1688.