Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14
HIDING THE GOLD.

| Gulf of California; and in fact it is the only
island treasure story that I have ever heard
| from Mexican sources.
| In 1892 Captain Colnet, an English ful
trader, cruising up and down the Pacific
coast, was seized, with his ship, at the port
| of Nootka, in Van Couver Island, by the
Spanish authorities, who then claimed the
whole coast to Alaska. If this claim could
have been maintained there never would
have been any British Columbia, but the
English Government, true to its traditions,
took such prompt and energetic
measures that the King Of Spain
| disavowed the ambitious plans OF
the famous Viceroy of Mexico, and exemplary
damages were paid to Colnet and to Eng
land. During these negotiations Captain
Colnet, first taken to San Bias and thence to
the city of Mexico, was treated with such
courtesy by Revillagigedo that in the year
after his release, 1898, he named group OF
islands off the coast of Baja California after
the Viceroy. These are the islands of that
hidden treasure whose story has been given
me by one of the most prominent members
of an old Californian family.
But the history of these islands reaches
much farther back. The great Spanish
navigator, Fernando de Grijafva, discovered
the group in 1923, but only bestowed the
name of Saint Thomas upon the principal
island. Other explorers have named the
same Socorro, but since the name first given
ought to be preserved, Saint Thomas,
though also duplicate name, will be the
one used in this narrative.
The Spanish Government long ago tried
to establish a colony on the Reyillagigedo
Islands, but failed on account of the lack Of
springs or rainfall The Me1icans had
plans for turning them into penal estab-
tishment, sort Of Pacific coast Botany Bay,
but this likewise was never realized, and
the resources of the group are so small that
it is hardly visited once in ten years. The
geographical position of the principal
island, Saint Thomas, is: Latitude, 18o 49,
north; longitude, 100 81 west.
The manuscript from which have taken
most of these facts, subsequently verified as
far as possible by the leading historical au-
thoritfes, is lent me by General Manuel
Castro, one of whose relatives visited the
islands and furnished the following descrip-
tion of Saint Thomas:
"It is eight leagues long from s. E. to N.
W., and in its widest part is about three
leagues across. 1t is a mountain some
1000 feet high, rising steeply from the
ocean, with the main slope toward the
south, and is visible in clear weather for 20
leagues away. The southern slope is COW
cred with cactus and with low and exceed
ingly thorny shrubs, which grow in the
crevices Of the rocks and dark lava that
form its soil, which is evidently of volcanic
origin. The anchoring grounds are two,
one on the southwest, called CORVALLIS
Bay, and the other on the southeast, called
Braithwaite Bay. Both of these were
named by Captain Colnet. The only ami
mails on the islands are goats, which may be
seen running over the heights. 1t is said
that there is abundance of logwood; but this
is doubtful, for this tree is usually found in
the tropic 1owlands. No permanent fresh
springs have yet been found on the island,
but there are probably some among the
peaks, since goats exist there, and since
there are dense nnists that often cover the
mountains, as in the island of Guadalupe,
off the California coast. :"
So much for the story of the treasure
island. That of the treasure itself is still
more complex narrative, as must needs be in
q matter which so many persons have been
interested in keeping secret, and which SO
few have really known anything about.
When the viceroy heard that the group Of
islands had been named in his honor he sent
his Secretary to. examine them. This gen.
tleman was Castilian of pure blood,
nephew of the old Duke Of Albuquerque,