The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-11-12

the schooners we hove out the ballast
(you remember, it was dollars), and
carried it into the middle of the clear.
ing. Each man put his share into an
earthern pot; his namo, written on a
bit of parchment, was placed inside,
and his initials were scratched on the
outside, and it was then sealed up care
fully. The pots of gold and silver were
then buried in circle in holes dug
tolerably deep in the ground, and every
man planted a small tree over his
treasure. Our common stock of treas
ures we next sealed up in large jar,
and buried this in the center of the
circle and planted good-sized tree
over this also.
"After we had secured our valuables,
as considerable time had been lost in
doing all this, it was decided that the
schooners should go off on another ex-
pedition at once, and they put to sea,
leaving few men under my charge to
look after the camp and the treasure.
Several weeks went by, and no news
came from the absent schooners. Our
stock of provisions began to run low,
and it was impossible to get anything
in that desolate maze of morass, over
grown with tangled forests and cut up
by muddy streams and bayous, es-
pecially as we had planted nothing in
the clearing, and had not cleared any
more of the land, as we expected that,
of course, the schooners would soon re-
turn with q fresh stock. We had al
ways been so lucky that not a soul of
us dreamed of any trouble. Anyhow,
the schoorers never came back, nor did
l ever afterward get any clue to their
fate. They were probably captured
and burned, or more likely foundered
in hurricane.
"The rainy season was coming on,
and before long several of our number
had fallen off with starvation and dis
ease. My comrades and talked over
the situation, and finally concluded to
look out for number one, and leave the
treasure to take care of itself.
"Well, we had a ships boat with us,
and one day, after putting few mouldy
biscuits in our pockets, we took to our
boat and followed the bayou until we
came to the sea. Then we skirted the
coast until we reached a settlement,
and after that separated in different
directions, for there was no tie of
friendship to bind us, and We each
had a sort of dread that the others
might some way betray him. For years
after I wandered about the country
sometimes on the frontiers-unti en-
listed in the army, not caring much
what became of me, but half hoping
that perhaps / should be sent to
Florida, as turned out to be the case.
to fight these Seminoles, and so per-
haps catch a chance to look up the
treasure we had buried in the forest
never had had the ready money, nor,
I'm not ashamed to say, the courage to
go back alone to that spot; but got
this shot in the leg, and here I am, and
much good that treasure has done me
But it don't seem quite the thing, you
see, that all that money and treasure
should be buried there and be of no
use to anybody, and as you are the first
and tie last person that's been kind to
me these many years, I'll trust to you
to see that 1 have decent burial, and
will tell you just how to go to find the
treasure It's all truth I've been tell
ing you, and you needn't be afraid I'm
spinning you a forecastle yarn, but
just do as I direct you to do, and it'll
make you the richest man in the coun-
try and I don't know who deserves it
BETTER"
Richard Blount, after this, gave the
surgeon very minute directions as to
how to go in quest of the treasure. On
the next day the pirate died. AS soon
after this as the surgeon could get
leave of absence, he made arrangements
with friend to go after the supposed
mine of wealth concealed in the forests
Of Southern Florida. He could not
quite believe the story, but the circum-
stances under which it had been dis
closed, and the fact that money had
often been concealed by the freebooters
of the sea, made it sufficiently probable
TO warrant chartering a small, light
draught schooner and engaging crew
of blacks able to work the vessel and
willing to dig in the mud after gold.
1t was only by very close and tedious
observation of the coast that the mouth
Of the bayou was found. On entering
it from the sea, the line of trees which
had been blazed was also discovered
with some difficulty and traced from
bend to bend in the dusky light of the
DTlul6Val lOreSu.
Guided by this clew, often but faint
y distinguishable, the treasure-seek-
ers, after slowly sailing along the devi-
ous mazes of the silent waters of the
until they almost despaired
If reaching the end in view, at last
burst suddenly upon a sort of clearing
n the dense mass of vegetation, over
grown with trees of younger growth,
arising from which a circle of larger
.rees could be distinctly traced, with
central shaft lifting its feathery tuft of
foliage far up into the blue sky. Tent
stakes and other relics of extinct life
which overgrew the soil.
Everything, thus far, had proved ex-
actly as described by Richard Blount,
and it was reasonable to suppose that,
rs the story had been found to tally in
the minutest details with facts, it would
consistent throughout. 1t
was, therefore, with renewed zest ard
with the burning impatience which
tortures the soul when one is confident
Of the result and sees the desired object
almost in his grasp, that the doctor
seized a pick-ax, and ordering his men
TO follow suit, broke ground in the last
stage of the quest after a treasure
which his fevered fancy pictured as
more and more colossal as the rapturous
approached when it would be
opened to view. Such was his impa-
tience that he was the first to make a
The point of the pick, after
turning up the soft soil almost noise
lessly for some anxious minutes, at last
struck something hard with most de-