BURIED TREASURE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 15, Issue 33, 26 April 1904, Page 7

BURIED TREASURE.

A STRIKING STORY. The skipper of a turtling schooner from the Cayman Islands was aboard 1 his schooner one day lost spring, anchored close to a reef near the Caymans, on .which a barque had been recently wrecked. He was getting copper sheathing iron bolts, and similar valuable salvage from the wreck. Looking 'over the side of his vessel, he saw a curious yellow gleam on the ledge of the reef, about Bft. under the water. Thinking it was a large sheet of copper or brass, he ordered one of his crew to dive for it. The man took a header, and came up with his hands full of gold coins—Spanish doubloons, with the arms of Seville on them. The ledge was covered with loose gold. All day the men dived for it until they had brought up every piece in sight. 'Phare • were a few silver pieces, but nearly all were gold. How they came .there is a mystery ; but it is supposed that a boat must have tried' to land on the reef with the gold carried loose inside, probably with the idea of burying it on the reef, and must have been swamped. Anyhow, the story is perfectly true. The skipper showed me a lot of the gold in a stone in Kingston. Jamaica, and sold the entire find soon afterwards for over two thousand pounds. Sens of the doubloons were in a bad condition, but others were almost as fresh as il from the mint. According to tradition, there is an immense private treasure buried in a cave somewhere in the recesses of Gun Hill, is the parish of Trelawny, Jamaica. It is the hoard collected by Sir Henry Morgan, the most famous of the West Indian buccaneers, who sacked Puerto Cabello, Maracaybo, and all the richest towns of the Indies and the Spanish Main, besides taking plate ships galore. No other rover was half so successful as he ; none collected anything like so much booty. Morgan was a* canny Welshman who always contrived, by fair means or foul, to get most of the plunder for himself. He was a good judge of diamonds and precious stones, and used to buy up lor a mere song those which fell to the lot of his men. After the sack of Panama he was knighted by Charles H. and made ioe-Governer of Jajnoiea. What became of his vast wealth never transpired ; but he is supposed to have buried it in Trelawny. When he became a respectable member of society he turned against his former associates, and hanged many a pirate. He must have stood in fear of their vengeance, and buried his treasure lest they should make a sudden raid on Jamaica. It is said that this treasure like Captain Kidd’s more famous hoard, is guarded by ‘‘Old Nick” himself, hoofs, horns, tail, pitchfork, and all. At this moment there are two or three expeditions—English and Ameri-can-searching for buried treasure in various parts of the West Indies. Not a year passes without some effort of the kind. Very often yachting cruises are made with this end in view, like Mr. T. F. Night't cruise in the Falcon. The favorite hunting grounds are the Bahamas, from New Providence as far south as Tortuga and the Virgin Islands. These were the favourite resorts of the buccaneers and pirates of <tho Spanish Main, and the treasures buried on them must be enormous. But there are hundreds of islands, and the chances of finding a cache of , doubloons, even with a fairly good clue to guide one, are very slim.— “Chamber’s Journal.”