COCOS ISLAND TREASURE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10571, 28 September 1910, Page 6

COCOS ISLAND TREASURE.

Captain Hackett, a Pacific whaler, : who has just arrived at Victoria (British Columbia), says he is the only liv T in <5 ,;ua» ...who, knous, the „ exadt _ hi-S tor J" of the Coeos Island treasure and--the exact spot where it is buried. He. is a whaling captain and lie says he has visited the very spot. "I have stood over millions," lie exclaims, "and only lack of equipment -prevented me from getting the huge" hoard from its hiding place of more than seventy vears." The early history of the treasure is well; known. In. 1835 the British barkentiiie Mary Dier anchored one nightunder a Peruvian fort near Callao; the anxious garrison, afraid of their Chilean besiegers, placed the great treasure under the protection of the British flag ; the crew, one of whom was a man. named Thompson, proved false to their trust-, and fleeing through the night buried the Peruvian millions, gold and. jewels, in the lonely island of-Cocos. ... Returning .thence, they, wer.e ed ,by a cjclone and captured by the Peruvians. Nine of the eleven men on board, were- hanged at the yard arm.: Thompson : and a Frenchman were spared -to guide, their captors ..to tlip treasure. But., putting .into,. Panama, tie.,fever eariie on..board, aiid the two prisoners escaped froin their harassed guards. They slid down the vessel's side, and swam for a :\vhaler .\yliicli \vas leaving harbor. Sharks made the swim a fatal one for th.e Frenchman, out Thompson clambered on board, the sole possessor of the secret of the buried

millions. Thompson next shows up at Aingston, Jamaica, a hunted man. He hoards a Newfoundland vessel loading with .sugar or molasses in search of a job. A man called Keating was carpenter and owner's , "spotter" on the ship at the time. "Thompson was a hard-looking ticket," Keating used to say. He was ragged and worn, and it was only on Keating's intercession that the captain took him on. During the voyage the grateful Thompson told Keating the secret of the treasure ana gave him the chart he had made or the place. When the ship arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, Keating once more befriended Thompson, who was harassed by constant fear of the Peruvian secret service. He smuggled the panic-stricken man 011 board a vessel bound for London with cod oil and fish. The story breaks here till 1842 or 1843, when'Keating, hitherto half sceptical, received a letter-begun by Thompson in. a London - .hospital and. finished by his nurse, for he was dead, stating that the treasure tale was really true. This letter woke up Keating. In 1844 he got a young fellow called Baine Johnson to fit out a, yacht under the 1 command of Captain Boggart to go m search of the treasure. ; So Jie and Boggart- cleared for. the North Pacific in ; the Witch Queen ostensibly on a pearl--1 ing expedition to Dulce Bay. lliey ' called at Cocos Island for "water as ~ they said. Keating easily located the 1 treasure and secretly in canvas pockets j sewed inside their clothes--they carried , what they could to the ship. 3 But with a crew on the point of susj picious mutinv they were forced to de- . sist. They sailed for Panama, where ! thev decided to leave the ship. As 1 thev went ashore, .Keating said a "black squall" overturned the whaleboat-, and Boggart, his big .sea boots 1 laden with gold, was drowned. , Keating crossed the isthmus with nmles and guides and got- home' safely. I 111 1816 he again set out, this time in the brig Gauntlet. Again he was ,sue- ? cessfill, getting in the two visits about V £22,000. "His wife," said .Hackett., 'used to tell 111 c how he returned and threw,the treasure 011 the bed, jewels and gold pieces tumbling together." Ho started poor as Job's turkey; when lie came n back he bought a ranch, built a "Keating Block," and started a "fishing ;i room" at- St. John's. The Gauntlet, which he had left at Panama, was r lost with all hands rounding the Horn. I : It was in 1875 that Captain Fred Hackett's elder brother first, persuaded -the .silent, shifty-eyed Keating to tell ~ his tale. After that beginning lie used II to describe to the two brothers how C scared he had been of going down the first time to the hoard, how he ha.d " feared a trap, how lie had finally descendcd and liad' ."kicked the lids off the boxes and seen the gold bulging "j through the rotting pigskin sacks." Before Captain Thomas Hackett n could fit out an expedition he fell a victim of yellow jack at- Havana in 1880. His papers, including Thompson s famous confession, were sent home and y lav in his father's drawer untouched till 1891, when Captain Fred Hackett himself went East to buy a sealing oute In 1897 Fred Hackett ill the '' Aurora, on the first of his two ill-fated expeditions to the islands. Badly provisioned himself, he picked up off the coast of the island twenty-six 'ship- " wrecked men driven bv fire from the- } Buckhurst. The .ten days trip with these, men to Panama and the extra, mouths to feed reduced his provisions " sadly. Pick and shovel were useless against a small landslide that had. covered the hiding place, and one of his, meli died of starvation. After great- hardships in the damp tropical climate of this little t island he returned empty handed. His e second trip in 1901 was doomed to failure from the start. He sailed f against his will without the equipment 1 he had demanded. ' Others have tried too and .failed- - Lord FitzWilliam, Admiral Palliser and 1 Roland have been there and returned. 1 Poland alone had any information, but I not full information, from Keating, and - he alone succeeded in getting, anywhere 1 near, the treasure. ; r "The seventh wave goes furthest up 1 the beach" ; the third attempt succeeds, - says Captain Hackett, and he means ifco t start again as soon as he can raise the f money. This time he will sail with: a 1 hydraulic plant- or not at all. Fantas--1 tic as it all sounds, conviction is rooted - in this seamanfs heart. He has been ? there, he has found the bearings. ;