Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-07-26

treasurer was chosen for every gang
Every thing of value was turned over TO him
TO care for, and once in about every two
years he made division of the spoils. This
treasure had to be zealousiy guarded and in
this instance it was so carefully hidden that
no one but the treasurer could have found
1t. He had come in advance Of NE TO add
fresh plumber to the great store, and there
| were jewels il his hands as he lay there
bloody mass
Some of you may doubt what l am going
to tell you. but there IS abundant proof IN
the Royal Museum. in the Old files OF the
Time, and yet in my own possession. Inc
treasures of that cave amounted 10 millions
upon millions of dollars. 1t must have been
the bank of thousand pirates, and II had
probably been several years since division
was made. Many of the baskets and boxes
were ot European make. but there were
many of native manufacture. The pirates
had not stored away silks and veivets and
laces. They had no such common stuff as
that. The treasure consisted of money.
watches, diamonds, rings, bracelets, ear
rings, watch chains, charms, and whatever
else could be called jewelry. There were
! crosses and badges and medals by the score,
and no less than six jeweled hits of swords.
| There We're a. least fifty gold chronOmeters,
! and l verify believe the number Of gold
| watches would have reached five hundred.
Unlettered and unlearned, and brought up
| 10 look on a $50 note as fortune, would
not have believed that the world held so
much money as / found here. There were
| English. american. French, German, Rus
| SLAMS, Swedish, Belgian, and all other sorts
of paper money, and gold and silver was
| heaped up until my eyes were ready TO an
swer for hat pegs.
Strange how human nature works! Be
| fore finding this wealth would have given
| year of my life to know that could make
the next hundred miles in safety. l had no
sooner got my eyes on the great wealth
than began to figure on how l could keep
every last shilling of it. 1 would not go
| without it. a quarter of an hour ago was
alarmed at the slightest sound. Now |
would have faced and fought the whole
| pirate gang. never susp cited l had such
determination, or That would care so much
| for money. 1t took me good while to cool
| off and calm down, and then l found my
self in favor of sticking right there. was
| like two men arguing. There wasn't one
chance in thousand of my getting of with
| d tenth of the plumber, and to remain there
was to invite discovery. Then the other
| chap, as it were, argued that l was fool TO
leave such wealth behind, and that l had
| only to remain in the cave to be hidden from
| any search that the pirates might make.
As q result l stayed. There was fresh
water at hand, plenty OF wild fruits around
| me, and the only unpleasant thing was the
corpse As soon as my mind was made up to
stay pulled it out from underline stone and
| buried it in the bank as well as | could with
only 2 stick and my hands to work with.
There was no alarm that day, but on the
! next day / had no sooner eaten hasty
| breakfast and returned to the cave than l
heard men in the woods. From an hour
after sunrise TO sunset the pirates were con-
| stantly coming and going through the
ravine calling 20 each other and to the miss
| ing man. II was the same for the next
three days, and the hunt was given up or
extended far beyond me. They may have
reasoned that the man had sailed away from
thc island, and ! have no doubt that search
| ing parties were started out by sea as well
| as by land. had to lie quiet now, and dur
! ing the three DAYS | suffered much from
| hunger and thirst. i knew the fellows
would not give up as long as there was any
hope and il was well that was over eau
| tious. On the fifth day a hundred or more
of them were i'll the ravine for several
hours, pulling down rocks, uprootinS
bushes, and passing so near the mouth of
the cave that | held my breath. This
minute search satisfied them and no one
came near me again.
II was two weeks to day before / con-
tiuued my Journey. On the second day after
burying the body / exhumed it and stripped
it of outside clothing, and when ready to go
left my sailor togs behind Inc in place of
them. After handling every thing over and
over again fought down my avarice and
used judgment in determining what to take.
unset and took over eighty diamonds, up
ward of G16,000 in English paper money,
about -, 900 in English and American gold,
and q little over 1000 in French notes.
The paper money was all bills of large de-
nomination. WANTED TO load myself down.
but had sense enough to realize the tramp
before me. could not. however, resist Sc
lecting three OF the finest gold watches, one
of which can to this day be seen in the Royal
Museum at London. 1t is of French make,
but has never been further identified.
1t was 4 terrible trip l undertook For
six days lived on fruits and berries, and
was often without water, and in this time l
Gid not make ten miles in a straight line,
being constantly alarmed and paying no
heed to the compass points. On the sixth
night, about midnight. l came to a beach
and settlement 1T may have been the
one near which first landed, and probably
was. After making sure that no one was
about, approached the beach, hunted out
a canoe-like craft which thought | could
manage with IA paddle. and launched it
and put out into the Straits without raising
an alarm. Wind and tide were both in my
favor. and at sunrise next morning l was
picked up by the Lord Nelson, an English
ship inward bound. fifteen miles below and
of the island. Two or three years later,
when we had the pirates on the run, /
headed party to secure the rest of the
treasure, but we found only an empty cave.
Accident or search had at last revealed the
storehousc to othcrs.-H. J. Sun.
An Ancient Powder-Horn.
There has been presented to the JET