Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-05-05
6eneral 9mtelli9enfe.
CAPTAIN KIDD'S TREASURE.
Great Discovery of Gold and Silver
Cain ON staten Island.

CAPTAIN KIDD's TREASURE.
Great Discovery OF Gold and silver
Csin on Staten Island.
From the New York Sun. April IS.
No little excitement was occasioned last
Sunday IN the quiet Lit .le village Of Ross
vile, Staten Island, by the discovery Of a
large sum of money, hidden many genera
tions ago, when tue village was on the
great line of travel between Philadelphia
and New York The drowsy hamlet, sleep
ing through the warm Sabbath day, awak-
ened from its dreamy state, opened its eyes
with a startled and wild stare, stretched Its
limbs, and In moment was hurrying as il
by common impulse to common destina-
ton, which happened to be the new and
stately residence of Sheriff Abram
winants, of the winants family, who
have lived thereabouts since their an
cestors landed in Manhattan Bay, in the
the times OF the good old Amsterdammsrs
and other pious men from watefy Holland.
Dame Rumor, who gessips with a thousand
airy tongues among the dwellers upon the
banks of the stormy Staten Island Sound
that broad sweep of water that separates
the peaceful and easy inhabitants Of the
south side from the apple-jack tipplers and
clay-diggers of Jersey-had finally got
hold of q large atom of truth to build one
other stirring structure upon. There was
really Jingle of old coin about the old Wi
nants' mansion. an almost forgotten music
to most of the eager eyes and open-eared
gazers on the heap of pieces in gold, silver
and copper that almost filed a peck meas
ure upon the kitchen table, But the clink
was not clear or silvery. The corroding fin
gers OF time had blarred and ,.usted their
fair sides; and the elements through a sue
sion OF generations had been busily en-
gagged in adding to them layer upon layer
of rust and earth and obliterating dates and
eating away the faces of royal and imperial
rulers, that cleaned brightly enough hun
dreds of years ago, before America itself
perhaps was discovered. These curious
and unique memorials of former times were
well handled and weighed; and learnedly
discussed by the uumismatIcans who con-
gregated in Sheriff WiEans' rooms, and the
Sheriff told the following story to fresh au-
diences a hundred times during the day,
until the smoothing and softening influence
of gentle rye would no longer allay the
hoarseness of his musical voice:
walking out this morning." said the
Sheriff, Ito enjoy tie brilliant spring SUM-
light and soft, balmy AIR, had reached the
corner of my house, and was contemplating
the Injurious and rapid growth Of some
early flowers, when my eye caught the
gleam of some metallic substance, as j
thought, among the grass. / gave it q
push with the toe of my boot, when, much
to my surprise, turned over two or three
round bits of metal, which, on being ex-
amined, proved to be copper coins greatly
corroded by rust One or two of them yet
exhibited fragments of dates and legentls.
l pursued my investigation with the
aid of hoe, and was startled in
turning up great numbers of coin of various
sizes and quality. Before had completed
my search had found 562 pieces of gold,
silver and copper. most of them so rusty as
to be undecipherable- / had evidently
come across hidden deposit of money laid
away years and years ago, beyond the
memory of men now living. One of the
coins was of silver. about the size off QUAR-
ter of dollar, but thinner, bearing on one,l
side the date of 1852, and ON the other a l
legend / cannot translate. Many of the
copper coins bore the date of 1725 and there.
abouts, and were clearly of English origin.
How they came there, gentlemen, is ques-
ton you can explain as readily as L II
know nothing about it"
That is the Sheriff's story, and Sun re-
porter has seen some of the coins. He has
placed a majority of them in lye to clean
them mp, and we shall doubtless soon be |
able to ascertain the nature of the coins |
Six of the unknown have been sent to the |
Smithsonian Institution at Washington to |
obtain the opinion of experts upon their |
character They are evidently not Eng |
ish, but are doubtless of Spanish or South |
American nintase. Altogether they are
remarkable addition to our numismatic col |
nd nd nil
doubtless he able to obtain specimens if |
they apply early.
The discovery has awakened an extraor- |
dinary and glowing research amsng the |
Rossvillains, and there is general revival |
of ancient stories of buried treasures, In |
which Captain Kidd figures with due prom |
inence. All the venerable colored residents |
have forgotten the Fifteenth Amendment, |
and are now inddlging in dreams, in which |
the ghosts of bold freebooters appear, and
lead the gentle antique maidens to retired |
spots, where they point out the places |
of buried spoils taken from stately Spanish |
galleons on the Main. There are also many
signs vouchsafed by these gallant |
pirates, By which the believing may
find untold wealth hastily put away in the |
early days of the province. The believers |
are many, If We are to judge from the re-
ports of travellers In those parts who have |
seen the occasional fash of a lantern, like |
the gleam of the win-o-the-wisp, at night, |
on the solemn shores of the Staten Island
Sound, where the gold seekers are stealth
lily pushing their researches. If Captain |
Kidd's buried treasures could be found, all |
Staten Island would snap its fingers at the
clay-diggers and apple-jack soakers of Jer-i
sey. Sheriff Winants may have at last
found the secret hiding place, and demon |
strated forever the fact that the late Skip |
per Kidd did gather together much money. |
''As he saile.;, As he sailedi"
thereby adding historical verify 10 tradi-
tionsl stories Of the past.