San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-09-05
A BURIED TREASURE.

terests of a certain English manufacturer,
and it was a year and a half later when |
one day received a strange visitor with a
stranger proposition. | was in charge of a
large warehouse, and one of my Chinese
employees brought in the stranger and eX-
planned:
Il told him you would have nothing to
do with him, but he insisted on coming"
The stranger was a half breed of some
sort, gaunt, ragged and evidently hard up.
As soon as we were alone he introduced
himself as Semyo, and stated that he was
from the Island of Luzon, one of the group
composing the Philippines. He belonged
to the native population, but had Spanish
blood in his veins. He had once been a
man of importance, but the Spaniards had
robbed him of his power, and afterward
feared his influence to such a degree that
he had first been imprisoned and after
ward banished. He had been carried on a
native craft to Japan, and there left ragged
and penniless, and had been more than a
year reaching Hong Kong.
While he had only a few shillings in his
pockets. he had neither come to solicit
charity nor a place to work. He had a
straight, square business proposition to
submit. fl approved of it, well and good;
if | did not, then he would be no worse off.
When he realized that Spanish influence
was plotting his downfall he made such
preparations as he could TO meet the in
evitable. He was a very wealthy man,
and he quietly went to work and converted
everything he could into money, gold dust
and jewelry. He had got about 800 600 to-
gether when the ruling power pounced
upon him, but not quick enough to get it.
He had cached or buried his fortune, and
though he was abused and threatened by
the Spaniards for months he would not
betray the secret.
To get that money by his own individual
efforts was utterly impossible. The mo-
ment he set foot on LuZOn he would be ar
rested. He must have a partner who would
furnish a ship and crew, and he would go
along to mark down the spot where the
treasure was buried.
l looked upon the man with pity and
upon his project with contempt when he
first began talking. When he was through
l had agreed to think it over. There is a
fascination about buried treasure or a
sunken wreck that will enlist capital to the
detriment of honest speculation. l was
noted as being a conservative man, and the
idea of my going into any such venture
would have been regarded by my friends
as evidence of approaching mental calam-
ity. l went to the American consul, and
in a roundabout way he confirmed a part
of Semyo's story. He had heard of him,
and heard of his being deposed and an
ished. Then l went down to the wharves,
and almost the first man | ran against was
the Yankee captain of a brig called the
John, which was then having some repairs
made. She had been running in the tea
trade up and down the Yellow sea, but now,
queerly enough, the captain informed me
that he thought of taking II run over to
Philippines and try for a cargo on his own
account.
/ outlined my story to Capt. Wheaton,
as he introduced himself. Semyo retOld
his story in the presence of the captain.
When he had retired the captain drew
down his right eye, slapped his leg and
whispered:
Colonel, it's a go! The heathen's talk
ing s~traighter than a straight edged board,
and if we can come to terms Pm in with
the deal!'
There was very little higgling over the
particulars. 1t was agreed that Capt.
Wheaton and myself should bear all the
expense of the adventure, and if the treas
ure was secured each of the three should
nave an equal share. We gave Semyo
money to get himself into decent shape
and then looked to the furnishings of the
brig. She was already provided with small
arms and cutlasses, but we added to the
stock, and then, at the captains sugges-
ton, bought a carronade which had been
lying in a ware house for two or three
years.
With it we got a carriage and ammuni-
ton, and by the time the gun was aboard
the brig was watered and provisioned and
ready to sail. Her clearance papers were
for Manila in ballast, and the day of our
sailing Capt. Wheaton brought on board a
short, squatty, bescarred white man, who
had just been turned out of Jail, and who
proved to be an English "cut sticks" from
II. NJ. S. the Tempest. 1t turned out to be
the luckiest thing in the world that we
found him, for he knew how to manage
our carronade and made it keep us out of
an ugly scrape.
1t was only after we were o of sight OF
the Chinese coast that Semyo gave us the
exact location of his treasure cache. We
were to round the Bashee islands, lying off
the north coast of Luzon, and strike the
coast at a river called the Batanen, after
another island. Four miles up this river,
which is navigable for about twenty miles,
was the cache. We had a run of $50 miles
across the China sea to the Bashees, and
aIonu EkiS north coast We fSUld sSSerA