New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-11-07
elieYies chat The iislaIld was 81 t, 81 8

simply jumped to- the conclusio 81 that
4 the castaWay had suffered and en-
4 dnred until his mind was off its bal
ance. This was natural enough IN
one sense, but when Wheaton came
/ TO show him the relies from the two
wrecks, and when the two monkeys
were skipping about on deck, anyone
but an Englishman would have been
convinced.
4 Capt. Wheaton was sharp enough
to Withhold his big secret until he had
learned something Of the Englishman.
When he found all his stories and as
sertions discredited he held his tongue,
and let them believe he was light in
the upper story. He was taken to
the Sandwich Islands. as a castaWay,
and thence, with money found on his
unknown island, he paid his passage
to San Francisco. 1t was at this lat
ter port he found me, and within
| two hours after meeting him / had
the story. / had no reason to doubt
| it's entire truth. Three or four others
were taken into the secret, and we
formed a syndicate to go after the
| gold. I had alegacy of $S, 600 from
an aunt, and five Of us Clipped in an
equal amount, and bought aschoon-
er and fitted her out and manned her.
/ Something OF Capt. Wheaton's won
derful adventure got into the papers,
and there was great anxiety to find
out where we were going.
/ Wehad ten times as many men of
| fer their services as we could accept,
and when the story of the big lump
i ofgold was whispered around two
other crafts fitted out to follow us.
i We went out of the harbor on dark
and stormy night, and two or three
days before we were supposed to be
ready, and thus gave them the slip.
One Of the vessels stood up the coast
when ready to come out, and the
other loaded for the Sandwich Islands
and was lost in a gale.
! AS the captain had $4,000 in the
enterprise, and had not even waited
to visit his family, the reader must
credit him with honestly believing all
| he asserted. AS [ had an equal
amount invested, the reader must be-
lieve that [ am writing of things as
they honestly looked to me. How
could or any one else disbelieve?
There was a nugget there the papers
and relics, and the English captain
knew of the raft and lone passenger
being picked up 700 miles from any
known land. There wasn't the least
difficulty in making others believe,
either. | think we could have raised
100000 capital if there had been
need Of it. The trouble was to keep
capitalists and spectators. out.
Wheaton had no sgoner been rescu-
ed than he asked for the English
mans latitude and longitude. Then
he figured on the direction and
strength Of the wind and the progress
of his raft, and he had had the loca-
ton of his island down to within five
miles. have had miners and geol-
ogists tell me that no gold was ever
found in avolcanic upheaval Of the
sea. Ifnot, where did the captain
get that big lump? There is no gold
on any chartered island in the Pacific,
and he certainly could not have drift
ed to Or put off on his raft, from the
coast Of South America. TWAS easy
enough to sheer at a story, but not
so easy to get around cold facts.
We had a fine run to Honolulu, and
remained there for week to make
some needed repairs and lay in more
provisions and water. Capt. Whea-
ton there met fellow captain named
| Briggs, who commanded a New Bed
ford Whaler, and without a suspicion
OF what he was doing; this man great
ly discouraged us.
He had just come in from long
cruise, which the chart showed must
have taken him verynear theunknown
island. lie hadnotsightedit, but the
log book reported that when in that
neighborhood something like an
earthquake had occurred. Indeed,
one did occur, and a new island was
born in the Galapagos group. The
ship rocked violently in mid-ocean,
and a sort of tidal wave came near
being her destruction. Next day the
Whaler encountered many green trees
floating about, and he said to Capt.
Wheaton that.h had no doubt some
island had been overwhelmed. He
had no suspicion of our GRAND, and
related the above simply as an ad-
venture. However, from that hour
we lost all heart. Figure as we
would, we could not shake off the
conviction that it was the unknown
island which had been destroyed in
4 the same manner it was born.
After a long and tedious run from
the Sandwich Islands we finally drew
near the location. Then for days
and days we sailed to and fro, and
atlength realized that the island
had gone. 1t was not there to en-
rich us and to prove the captains
story true but still we found proofs.
| We discovered more than loo trees
floating about as we saided this way
and that, and after we had given up
all hope we made a still greater