HUNT FOR TREASURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21597, 15 September 1933, Page 8

HUNT FOR TREASURE

GOLD OF LONG AGO WRECK OF OLD DUTCH SHIP [from OtJB OWN correspondent] • BYDHEY. Sept. 8 The romance and glamour of old-time treasure hunts is recalled by a message from Perth that a police trooper and guide are breaking an arduous trail through almost impenetrable scrub south of Dongarra, in the wilds 'of Western. Australia, searching for a cairn believed to mark the burial place of a treasure of 78,000 guilders (roughly £6500) saved from the wreck of the Dutch ship de Verguilde Draeck in 1656. ' ' ' Mr. Alfred Burt, son of a former ; Chief Justice of Western Australia," and the late Mr. Harry t Qgbourne, • found the cairn 60 years ago while-en-gaged on an Admiralty survey of the Western Australian coast. It was in a, small clearing, ringed with white , stones. Later, when reading of the wreck of the de Verguilde Draepk (the Golden Dragon) on a reef on the coast 60 miles south of the ringed space, Mr. Burt associated his discovery with the sea tragedy of 200 years earlier; Then followed the finding, in a cave north of the Moore River, of a handful of corroded coins, dated between 1618 ana 1648. Near by was a skeleton, which crumbled to dust when it was touched. It was assumed that this was the re- > mains of a survivor who had left the main party to seek help, and who carried a number of the coins-with him. : The ringed clearing then became v clue to the resting place of the old Dutchman's treasure, and although on the verge of 80 years, Mr. Burt has made two courageous but fruitless attempts to rediscover the spot. Gorrobo- . ration of the existence of the clearing v and the stones came from an old resident of Dongarra, and another remembered a long pile of stones pointing like an arrow to Ithe clearing. Now news is awaited .eagerly from the trooper and guide who are investigating along the line indicated by the stones. The de Verguilde Draeck lost 118 men when she was wrecked on April 28, 1656. There were 69 immediate survivors, but repeated searches revealed no trace of them or of the treasure which the vessel carried. Mr. Burt's story i® that he gave no further thought to the discovery of the stones until the discovery at Moore River years later again brought the whole matter to his mind. Since then he has made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the siteone with Mr. Maxwell Lefroy, Government inspecting surveyor, and one witn a trooper and a bushman. He i* anxiously awaiting news of the latest , expedition. ,