SUNKEN TREASURE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12471, 23 February 1909, Page 4

SUNKEN TREASURE.

The first full and complete story of the gold that was: smuggled out of the Transvaal just - before the Boer war was forthcoming recently from the diary of Colonel, Clarke, now .Chief Commissioner of the Na.tal ' Police,and formerly, head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the colony. From this it appears that "Kruger's gold" is a myth, but that the smugiors. were a syndicate of illicit gold-: buyers who were plundering the Transvaal mines. ; The value of the gold is' estimated at from £600,000 to £1,000,000, and search for it is now being made, off Cape Vidal,' St. Lucia Bay, Zululand. The gold, accprding to the diary, was put on board the barque Dorothea at Delagoa Bay. It was in January, 1898, that the vessel set sail,. but she . was wrecked the day after her departure. ' . The gold, it is said, was put m the vessel before the captain and crew engaged for the journey went on board. . The treasure was securely packed away in strong boxes, which were placed at the bottom of the hold, cemented over, and then covered' with stone ballast. The vessel was well out to sea, when the strain of the sails caused an opening of the seams (the vessel was a wooden one). -" ' ' , " . A syndicate has been formed at Johannesburg, with" a capital of £3000 and is now prosecuting the search ott • Cape Vidal. The ' expedition has a concession from the Natal Government for a period of over one year, and until that period expires no other persons will be allowed to search on the spot Colonel Clarke expresses his absolute confidence that the expedition is at the right place.