A TREASURE TROVE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1148, 13 September 1883, Page 3

A TREASURE TROVE.

A curious and interesting piece of news, which reads like ft page from Mr Charles Reade's Foul Play, has been communicated to a correspondent of the N.Z. Tablet, in a private letter from the Cape of Good Hope. It appears that Colonel H. G. Robley, who is now stationed at Capetown, read not long since in the history of that place how a Dutch galliot, on her way from Batavia, anchored in Table Bay in May, 1648. On the 16th of that month, being driven ashore by a furious northwest gale, she sank off the mouth ot Salt River. The crew built a few huts and supported themselves as they could till they were taken off in 1649 by a Dutch fleet homeward bouad. fhe spot was reported as a suitable locality for stores, gardens, and the like, whereupon the Dutch East India Company fitted out an expedition consisting of three ships under the command of Van Rubeck, who landed in April, 1652, founded the present colony, and became its first Governor. Being interested in the narrative of the early disaster, Colonel Robley learned that the whereabouts of the old galliot were perfectly well known. Embedded deep in sand, she still lay on the bar at the mouth of the river. Not long since, however, a cutting was driven through this sand-bar in order to convey water to the docks. The cutting brought about a change in the tide-levels, and disclosed the position of the wreck below. In 1857 one Mr Adams, a diver, went down, and succeeded in recovering two brass six-pounder guns, some bars of silver, a large number of coins, and a quantity of rare china, Mr Adams, however, died, and the search wai never resumed until the other day, when Colonel Robley—who had gone out, after a heavy storm, to examine the spot, and actually saw the deck of the galliot under the sea—took steps to renew the operations. Having obtained a government concesiosn, he is now by the help of a professional diver working the wreck 'on salvage.' The name of the old ship was the Haarlem, and she was laden with cases full of curiosities and antiquities for sale to European museums. These casrs, judging from the contents of which Mr Adams recovered in 1856, contained goods, rare china, old glass, bales of oriental silks, etc. Colonel Robley has bought from the family of the deceased Mr Adams some valuable vases, coins, and the like, and hopes to be rewarded b* the discovery of a largo number of similar treasures. The china is not at all injured by having been 225 years under the sea ; but the silver articles have suffered considerably, and the silks must of course be spoiled, Colonel Robley is overwhelmed with applications from persons eager to take shares in his interesting enterprise.

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