TREASURE TROVE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3597, 1 April 1924, Page 3

TREASURE TROVE

GOLD DOUBLOONS IN A GHEST. Deposited ini the Royal Bank of Canada, awaiting action in a claim by the British Government, is a treasure trove brought up recently from the bottom of the harbour of Nassau, the capital of the Bahama Islands. This treasure (states a Canadian correspondent of the Daily Chronicle) consists of “gold doubloons (Spanish guineas) of the year 1790.” They are .valued by the bank at over £II,OOO. Tne treasure *vas discovered by an Toney, a diving gin. of the Subm.iiuo hi m Corporation jf Now .York. Under the direction of Mr. J. Ernest Williamson, the firm’s general manager, who has filmed many amazing and beautiful under.water scenes in the West Indies, a number of screen actors were performing in the crystal clear water. Miss Tolley, in taking a deep dive from the yacht Williamson, saw the handle of an iron chest sticking out of the sand at the bottom. When the chest was hauled up by the crew of the yacht the “doubloons” were revealed.

Within the 20 years before the date mentioned above (1790), Nassau was alternatively in the hands of the British, Americans, Spaniards, and British again, coming permanently under the Crown in 17S<>. Nassau is a famous and beautiful winter health resort for Americans and Canadians. There is excellent seabathing and diving. Barly in the sixteenth century Juan Ponce de Leon, who had been one of Columbus’s lieutenants, searched the Bahamas for gold and for “Bimini, the fountain of eternal youth.” South Bimini Island is now a spa.