The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-11-10
GlItterinx Illusions.

Glittering Illusions.
Col. James E. Gowen has made q
special study ofsunken treasures and has
many strange and interesting stories to
tell Of men who vainly sacrificed wealth,
time and labor, and sometimes even life
itself, in the search for them. On re-
cent occasion, after he had told the
writer the story of the sinking of the
Spanish treasure galleons in the bay of
Vigo, and announced his intention of
going to recover them. he recalled many
"reminiscences of treasure-seeking that
are. well worthy of record.
mot many years ago." said the Colo
mel, 1.-THE rage for treasure-seeking was
so prevalent in all our large cities that no
scheme, however improbable, could fail
of finding support and patronage. Many
of the schemes were SO brazenly fraud
ulent that no man of ordinary common
sense should have embarked dollar of
money or an hour of time on them, while
others, which were seemingly well
backed with documentary and other evil
dence that was seemingly correct, were
equally fraudulent and delusive, since
they referred to schemes that had been
exploded years before. One of the ex-
petitions which was organized at that
time was to the island of Aboco, off the
coast of Venezuela, where treasure
ship was sunk late in the seventeenth
century. The coast was rough and
rocky, and the breakers heavy, so that
the schooner sent with the first expedition
was dashed to pieces, and the searchers
narrowly escaped death, but the second
was more successful, as it found some of
the timbers of the sunken vessel, and
established the fact that the gold, if she
contained any, had long since disap-
peared. This search cost $4,000.
Venezuela draws steady income
from American seekers of sunken treas
ures, as tradition says that many of the
treasure-laden galleons bound for Spain
where lost upon her rock-bound coast.
There is scarcely year that she does not
grant search concession to adventurous
Americans, who have been convinced by
interested parties that all they have to
do is to get the necessary authority and
90 at once and rake in the doubloons and
ingot and numberless pieces of eight of
the unfortunate Spaniards who lost their
lives in trying to save them. Some of
these concessions were for places that
had been so often and so thoroughly
searched that the chances for find
were worse than one in a million; still
the shrewd Venezuelians raked in actual
American dollars in pay for prospective
doubloons and pieces of eight and in
gots, and smiled. One of these ad-
Venturous expeditions was headed by a
New York journalist of some note, and
backed by monied men, who ought to
have studied the question more closely
before investing.
at was instigated by dried up, gen.
orally WORKOUT mariner, who was wide
ly known in New York as The Capt
ain,' who led a life that was constant
series of shifty expedients. To-day he
would. be flush of money, dining at the
best restaurants, and tomorrow playing
the degraded part of lunch fiend.
However, he fell in finally with the
Journalist, stuffed him full of his Vene-
zuelan scheme, and finally persuaded
him to embark in the speculation.
Money was obtained, a vessel manned
and fitted out with diving apparatus,
and the journalist and the Captain
sailed merrily forth for South American
waters in search of untold wealth. Some
how or another the Captain had lost his
bearings, as it were, although when he
was in New York he knew to the frac-
ton of an inch exactly where the sunken
treasures lay, and the report was that
the exploring vessel foated leisurely
along the biggest part of the coast of
South America, dredging here and send
ing down divers there. and finding moth
ing. 1t was good thing as vacation,
the journalist thought, and interesting
as developing the Typographical charac-
ter of the bottom of the sea, but as a
speculative investment it was most de-
cided failure. Finally, after about three
months of a wearisome search, during
which the Captain was always sanguine
of rich find the journalist cornered
him one day and forced him to confess
that his so-called knowledge of the hid
ing place of the sunken treasure was
purely conjectural, and that his whole
scheme had been devised for the sake of
a pleasant cruise and a good living for
the time being. He was landed at Val
paraiso, where he probably found new
victim, and the expedition returned
home.
But the monumental fraud in the way
of sunken gold is right in the harbor of
New York, and not more than eight
miles from the center of that great me-
tropolis. I allude to the British frigate
Hussar. which ran into one of the He'll
Gate rocks late in the Revolutionary war,
was bulged in forward, and sunk near
the spot where the Morrisiana gas-works
are now situated, in about eighty feet of
water She was first-class frigate, and
according to popular belief, carried about
100000 in gold for the payment of
the British army in America. Right
where the Hussar went down there is a
very strong tide and an eddy that rem
ders work very difficult; but not long
after the close of the war efforts to get
at her treasure were begun, and they
have been kept up, with occasional in
teimissions, ever since. In 1852 first
had the idea of raising sunken ships that
l applied in 1857 in Sebastopol. and l
then thought OF applying it to the Hus-
sar; but in undertaking scheme of this
sort always want to make sure that the
treasure l am looking for is
where 1 have reason to think
it is. So went to England and COM
menced thorough search through the
records with regard to the frigate Hus-
sar. hired numbers of searchers and
made complete investigation among
the papers of the admiralty and in the