TREASURE ISLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVII, Issue 12819, 26 May 1902, Page 4

TREASURE ISLAND.

Several famous pirates of tho Spanish Main are supposed to have’ burjed ■ their loot of gold and silver and precious stonesj in certain caves and holes on Cocos Island —a mere dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, five hundred miles or so from! Costa Rica. Thirty million ■ dollars is tha lowest estimate of the value of this hidden; treasure-. Captain Pedro Benito t cf tha brig kelampago, who looted four Spanish treasure galleons and killed all the crew, first used Cocos as a safe deposit and pirate bank.

There have been many Unsuccessful attempts to find this loot * and to-day ext enterprising Englishman is preparing ats expedition to the little island. The last enterprising Englishman who tried his'hand was Admiral Palliser, of his tMajestyjs flagship Ihiperieuse; and the story of this) attempt was told 1 to a London “ Star ” representative by one of the crew—-Able-Sea-man W. E. Baxter. This is Baxter’s story:

“In October, 1897, we were stationed off Esquimalt, and a Spanish - American named Charlie Hartford came aboard, Wa bad seen him before, and he was very friendly with the Admiral. Almost immediately after Charlie joined the ship we got up steam and off we went. The yarn that went round was that we were going to help to quell a rebellion that was going oli at) San Jose.

“ Two days out, however, a whisper went round that it was treasure we were after ;i and sure enough, soon after we anchored off Cocos Island) in 30 fathoms of water, one steaming hot noon. All hands wer« piped to dinner immediately; and after we had fed, the starboard watch was order* ed to land id the cutters, with sea-boots, pickaxes, and shovels. Charlie landed with us—'and pretty excited he Was, I cad till you. We rowed into a kind of cove; and' we had to struggle ashore up to our waiSUl in water. And the place was swarming with sharks. >’J “ On shore we ran against a kind of hut, over which the Nicaraguan flag was fly* ing. Two men and a bo j and a very olij woman—-all of the mulatto breed—ran ouij when they saw us coming; and the wom»h yelled out in a harsh voice to Charlie# ‘ Don’t let the Englishmen come here Uf take the treasure!’ i•;■./■"A THE WORD TO “ DIG.” ; “ Our Admiral wasn’t going to have any of that sort of thing. W r e had 1 ten marines with us, under arms, and they were order* 6d to form a guard and stand sentry 4.S some others of us arrested the two men, ‘ Take the prisoners on board, and keep ’em there till we’ve done this business,’ said the Admiral And they were bundled off, much against their will. ■ We, let the old woman and the boy alope. ‘ “Then, with the sentries standing all in a line—for the Admiral was a stickler for having . things done in a proper manner—old Charlie lugged out his plan, and began giving directions for measure* ments. And then he says, pointing to « patch of rough earth: Dig straight down five feet here and yoi| will come to sand. Then dig a bib askew* for four feet, and you -will find a greai! stone slab. And underneath that slab, .. “What he said then I don’t rightly, remember ; bub I, know' it was all gold and silver and je-wels; and we started digging lika blazes in a spot which made the hollow of two little rocky hills—a sort of gully. Tha old woman ivas dancing round the outsida of the line of sentries, mighty excited. Well, we came to the sand! ‘What did I tell ye?’ shouted bid Charlie. Tour■ feet more—and we got to the slab right enough. By this time we were working up to our ■waists in water and slime. But there was the slab, and we gob a rope round it and heaved at it with the Admiral and Charlie encouraging us. We got it up just a bit* and we were even able to discover a curious mark on it, like a roughly-carved ‘ D.V.’—when, plomph! . • • iu rush* ed the water like a great whirlpool, and smelling awful bad.

MADE IT SECURE. ■ ... . “Next day the Admiral (not to be beaten) brought a couple of the ship’s fire en« gines to the hole; and we were pumping all day. We had another shot at the. stone slab; but again we were beaten; and on the third day the Admiral said; ‘lf wa can’t get hold, of.the treasure nobody else shall for a month or two, anyway I’ ( bone sent for a junk of gtm-cotton from tue Imperieuse. . . . and we blew half Uw hills down on to that hole where the slab Nvas! .‘Now somebody else have a try, says’ the Admiral, and off wfe goes! “ Of eburse, Charlie was mighty sick, fotf he said that 300,0001 bof silver bars and doubloons were buried under that s ab, to sav nothing of nearly 800 bars of gold. 275 gold-hilted swords, five kettles of jewels* and six or seven pots of gold coins!” Baxter, who tells this remarkable 'ale* wants to’know who is starting the new expedition to the golden Cocos Island. He can put the treaslire-hunter fight on to the! spot where the stone slab lies; and if lha new adventurer applies to this office wd can give him Baxter’s address. ■■ ■