A MODERN TREASURE HUNT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12818, 18 March 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MODERN TREASURE HUNT.

THE STRANGE CRUISE OF THE VERONIQUE.

i Tin; latest expedition to recover the hidden j treasure of Cocos Island" has apparently j met with no better success than its predeces- ; sots. At first the news that an accident i had happened to the search party taken out j by Lord Fitzwilliam in October last in ■ the steamship Veronique—formerly the I Castle liner Harlech Castle— decidedly alarming, but the following reassuring telegram was received in London on January 9:—"Veronique quite safe and uninjured. Captain Morrison, officers, and crew all well. j Lord Fitzwiliiair and party homeward 1 bound on Friday, all well, and are clue in j England 0:1 26th inst." A later message j says that the accident was due to a land- | slide, which all but overwhelmed the explorers, but that, with the exception of 0110 1 man rather seriously injured, the party escaped unhurt.

'] lIK HIDDEN TREASURE. It is assumed that the earl and his party, like many other adventurer?, have been unsuccessful in their search. The curious thing about it is that Cocos Island, according to ail is simply honeycombed with buried treasure. Only last season a narrative was published by Mr. H. de Montmorency of unotlici recent attempt to find the same short cut to millionaireship. The story told by Mr. de Montmorency of the various deposits of treasure on Cocos Island is most iomantic. During the struggles of the : Peruvians against, the Spaniards the inhabitI ants of Lima entrusted twelve million dollais' worth of church nlate and other treaI nine to the safe keeping of an English capi tain named Thompson. Thai worthy, wo are told, promptly absconded with the whole amount, and hid it in a cave on the small ! island mentioned above. Retribution, however, in the shape of a gunboat overtook the thieves, and the whole crew were killed with the exception of the captain and mate, who were spared in order that they might reveal the hiding-place of the treasure. But (hey succeeded in effecting their escape. Other riches were concealed on the island by the celebrated pirate Benito Bonito and his men. The author relates as much as is known concerning previous searches on the island, all of which came to grief owing to mutinous ce.vs, and details the history of the three clues on which the expedition, of which he formed a member, placed their reliance. The adventurers had to comeaway, however, without meeting with the slightest success, and—the treasure is still on Cocos Island. Cord Fitzwilliam is 33 years old, and a good all-round sportsman. He also takes the keenest interest in engineering— ally mining engineeringand the Veronique is "said to have taken out both mining plant and explosives for blasting purposes. The earl served with the Army Headquarters Staff in the South African war, when his services brought him mention in despatches and the D.S.O. From 1895 to 1902—when he succeeded his grandfather as the seventh par!—he was Unionist member for Wakefield, and he moved the Address in the House of Lords last year in reply to the Speech from the Throne. The Countess Fitzwilliani. whom he married in 1896, fa a daughter of the Marquis of Zetland. Admiral Palisscr, who is a member of the earl's party, ha< been in search of the treasure before, and is convinced that he has a clue to its whereabouts. 'Ibis is said to have been bequeathed to him by a certain captain, who died before, he could make use of the clue himself. The admiral, though sixty-eight years old, is still almost as fond of adventure as a schoolboy, and, like the earl, a keen sportsman. He served in the Baltic in 1854 and the Black Sea in 1855, and protected British interests during the Carlist war of 1871. From 1896 to 1899 he was commander-in-chief on the Pacific station.