Pirate Treasure

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6625, 11 August 1931, Page 3

Pirate Treasure

SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL'S GREATEST ADVENTURE,

When a man like Sir Malcolm Campbell writes a book called “My Greatest Adventure” we may take it for granted that it is no ordinary adventure ho describes (says John o’ London’s Weekly). It was a treasuro he was after —pirate treasuro buried on Cocos Island, in the Pacific, reputed to bo 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 Dampicr in his .privateering adventures, when he blockaded the Bay of Panama and sacked the City of Leon iu Nicaragua in 1685. Tho second is that of Benito Bonit.o, “Bonito of tho Bloody Sword,” a pirate of the early eighteen hundreds, and the third is the famous treasure of tho City of Lima, which was buried on Cocos in about IS2I 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 elues (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. Tho Cocos treasuro 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 the 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 the tent door, barking and chattering with rage and fear. He was almost beside himself. I have never seen a dog in such a paroxysm of terror. It was as though ho had seen a ghost. He stood there barking and yapping into the blackness ef. the night, every hair on end, his voice vibrant with fear and defiance.

Although ho found nothing, Sir Malcolm admits that he “had tho feeling that somewhere in the blackness someone was watching.” A Lost Race Three times after this the same thing happened in the middle of the night. What was tho reason of the dog’s terror? Sir Malcolm puts forward a theory that, though interesting, seems barely credible in tho 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 the 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 white man. But whatever the explanation may be, Cocos is an uncanny place. During the last hundred years it ha 3 seen eighteen or twenty expeditions. Practically every one has met with disaster or dissension among its members. Ail have been fruitless. Even Sir Malcolm’s party met with a series of misfortunes that would havo daunted most, men. But even if little was accom-

plished on the island, Sir Malcolm has produced first-rate book on adventure. And it is significant to find the last chapter headed, ‘Au Revoir to Cocos Island.’ Sir Maleorn is already making plans to return.