CHAPTER XIX.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 71

CHAPTER XIX.

«^^ I a ogy&tijs''(- HIS cxp-cdition," said War- ' it^^m*s£r rlnjton, "of which, poor #?h£|jjiS||| \Yayne amd I were the i §$£&£§s*, ol'f lllL'-seis) 'is about tlie I i&WgtfY* sixth or seventh that has ; kwxtSha vial ted this blood-stained island during the past fifty i&£s&ir- y^arr. Iheie others as far back as 1800,. 1805, a::d 1817, all bent on the same qiic-t —to icwer the buried treasure of the piiate Benilo. That an erorcnous j amount of treasure —over £2,000,000 ! worth —.was hidden here by Benito there \ i'-. r.o doubt, and equally certain it is that one of the earLier expeditions discovered o»3 separate portion, valued ait something like £150,000. The other parties do not appear to have iound anything, and in nearly every instance quarrels broke out and bloodshed followed. The last expedition previous to mine cams here very quietly three years ago, in a schooner that was fitted out at Honolulu. It was badly equipped and badly led by an American. Yet I 'have reason" to 'be sure- that this man dud actually know the location of some part of the treasure. For three months the party worked under his diiection, trenching and excavating at a spot I shall show you to-morrow. Then, one morning, the leader was found dead in his tsnt. That he was treacherously poisoned there was no doubc: for in less than an hour after his death two men were seen to go into 'his tent, and leave it within a few minutes. These ir.en were the ; bi.?ward of ti.o &clvcor.jr and one of the j p-t-senders. They had evidently possessed j vlem-stives of ike p:.>r.<s which the dead i nr.iiL .-'''Vays cani^d about him. secured to ths iik-Ide of Lis and doubtless tliey iwant to muLe u^e of them at some future tini3. Callli);./ rfhe rest of ths party together, they announced that the captain had <<i«l suddenly of heart failure, and ixj-ked for a geiisral vote as to what had best be done. Meanwhile, a message was rent off to the mate of the schooroar, and a3 coon as he arrived the captain'o tenfc was visited, a careful search being made for the plans. Every article of clothing, his chest, 'his books and papers wexe carefully examined, but, of course, no plan was found. A violent quarrel followed, soms of ths treasure-seekers opanlv charging the steward and the passenger beforementioned of having murdered thje captain and stolen ths plans. They swore that j they were innocent, and insisted on bein°subjected to a iigid search. After a long discussion it v.as agieed to continue the eeaTch for the treasure for another two weeks. This was done, the suspected passenger working most energetically wdith tiie re.st. As nothing was Jtiimd, the mate announced Ids determination to return, to Honolulu, the schooner being bound to charter time. Those of them, ha said, who waait&d to stay could do «o, bui he meant to sail on the following day. Only two men elected to stay —not that they wished to search for Benito'e treasure, but because they were deserters from the American navy, and were afraid of (going back to Honolulu. The schooner Bailed (after the mate had supplied the two men with provisions), and was never li&ard of again; she was old and rotten, aoid doubtless went down with all her passeßgens aad crew. The- two men, after being three months on the island, were taken off by a whaleship—but for them nothing would ha.ye ever been known of what had occurred. "Now, as to this expedition of mine and Wavge's. H« and. J were old friends

and comrades, and had often discussed the subject of tlio Cocos Island treasure. I was engaged in the Guayaquil ivory-nut export business, and Wayne was in command of a steamer running on the South Ameiican coast. We had both saved rnorey, and having read in a Californian newspaper the story narrated by the two irsn i\ ho had remained on the inland, I suggested one day that we should make a visit to Cocos, if only to see what had been done by the other expeditions, and to consider whether we should form one of our ov.n to make a thorough and systematic search on a large scale. Poor Wayne was quite enthusiastic ; he resigned his command of the steamer, and I left mv business in the hands of a manager. "Within-a week Wayne aaid I, accompanied by two men only, left Guayaquil in a ten-ton cutter tor Cocos — six hundred miles to the noxth-east. "We reached here safely, and at once began our explorations, aided by a detailed chart of the island. Everywhere we found signs of tbs work of forme* seekers after the treasure — hug-s excavations aisd diep tramsver 0 © trenches, -almost hidden from view by ths rapidly-growing jungle and forest ot such a humid and tropical place. I had read and had heard so much of what hid been done by the various expeditions that Wayr© and I had very j htt'e troiible in finding out all tha old 'workings' ; and in tims wa mad-s a comprehensive chail of the whole of the inteiior of Ihe main island as v.ell as of tlie outlying rocky islets. Then followed a week of idleness, owing to the tremendous rains, and although the fl.ki3 plagued us greatly, we lived on shore, for it was impos.-ible to get any rest, day or nii^ht,, on the cuttsr on account of the steaming heat of the little cabin. "The cutter we had anchored in a safe spot in this bay — called Wafer Bay by Oolnett, who was here in 1793, — and as soon as the rains ceased we continued our explorations. 0a& day we came across the former camp of the last expedition, where several ruined liuts w«r-e still standing, and the ground littered with\ rusty tco'.s, ironwork, and cooking pots. This house in which we now are was actually built on the site of one of the ruined huts, and I daresay that you have noticed that just in fiont of the door" — he pointed to the spot — "where tfoos2 big ficus trees are there is a line of broken cliffs." "Yes, I did notice that when I came here with Mr Prosper." "Well, they are full of oaves, day and cool ; and when Wayne and I first came to sleep on share we picked on one that had b&sn used as a sleeping-place by the crowd from the Honolulu schooner. It is the roomiest of the lot, and' hs an I and our two men, after throwing out so-ma rotten clothing and other debris, slept in it the first night, but were much annoyed by rats, which were .running about all over the place. The back of the cave- is broken up into all sorts of small, rugged holes and protruding shelves of rock, and the rats whejiavea* we chivvied them, away scurried >off, and, climbing the rugged wail, were soon in safety, returning to the groumd as soon as they saw that we were quiet. "Next morning we hao a regular rat hunt, and the four of us killed Fome scores, but one especially big bruts escaped us by climbing up to a ledge, where it stayed, looking at us. Wayne knocked it over with a charge of shot, and than cent one of our men to bring it down for us to look at, as it was the biggest rat we had ever seen. The ma? climbed to the ledge, and threw down the dead creature, together with what looked like a thick piece of pine planking, about a foot square. "Wayne and I picked up the board, and looking at it saw that it consisted of two strips of red-wood pine, nailed tightly together on all four sides. It was smothered in dust, but was quite dry. We prized it open with a hatchet, rtA found betw-een the boards the missing plan which had been stolen from the murdered skipper of the Honolulu schooner — of this -He were quite .satisfied, even after a very brief examination. No doubt the 5-teward and his aeoomplic-e had placed it there, intending to return to Coe-os at some future time, aixJ, by its aid, get at the tieasure. They, of course, knew lh.it thsy were suspected of haying murdezed the sKipper and stolen his secret, ard that once they were on board the schooner they would again be searrhed. "Within an hour we had found the spot where the 'workings' were, but an immense and recent fall of some hundreds of tons of cliff and soil had .blocked up what evidently had been intended to be a deep 'drive,' or cutting, into tlie face of a j thickly-timbered spur, and the whole mass was already overgrown with vines and creepers. To clear at away would have taken the labour of fifty men for a month. "We had a \onp4 discussion as to what should be done, and then formulated our scheme. We made an exact copy of the plan, placed it in a square of snset lead, wliith we doubled over and made airtight, and buried it deep in the soft, powdery dust of one of the caye=. The original we fiist falsified in many important particulars, so that if it did fall into other parsons' hands nothing could be made of it. although it would serve us as well as the copy. "Twenty-four hours later we left the island, bound for Guayaquil, full of hopefulness for the future."