The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-05
SEARCHERS FOR GOLD.
LEGENDS OF CAPTAIN KIDD'S COIN
ALONG SHARK RIVER.
A Rough and SparseIy Settled Portion
of the Atlantic Coast Which Abounds
with Old and Often Told Stories Gf
Buried Treasure as Yet Unbound.

of the Atlantic Coast Which Abounds
with Old and Often Told Stories 0f
Buried Treasure as Yet Unfound.
When Captain William Kidd, the
doughty sea rover, was sent out from Plym-
outh, England, to rid the sea of some of
the pirates which infested il, he and his
crew came TO the conclusion that it was
better TO be the hunted than the hunters
They probably arrived at this unique de-
termination from observing the case with
which the fast flying schooners of the buc-
cancers evaded them and from catching
glimpses of the many golden doubloons in
the pockets oil the black browed, red hand
kerchiefed gentry who cut throats on the
high seas. They chose between small pay
and hard fighting as sea police and IN
limited rum and fat merchantmen prizes
as sea robbers. They turned pirates.
While the sun sbone on the scene of
Captain Kidd's deeds of piratical valor he
and his crew made hay. He was popularity
supposed to have buried treasure in sew
eral hundred places along the Atlantic
coast. though there has been only one
recorded find of the treasure, which was
that of Bellomont, governor of the colony
on Gardeners island.
Money hill is small promontory jut-
ting out into Shark river. No houses are
near it, and the approaches to it by land
are guarded by tangled masses of briar re-
enforced by thick growth of scrub oak.
Three miles to the eastward can be seen
the shingIed roofs of Avon blythe Sea, and
Belmar, lying among the trees on either
side of Shark river inlet. So lonely is
n hat Ea r.af
CLANS to bake and the hilarious possessor
Of bottled beer seldom invades its quiet,
and the little cedars grow their blue ber-
res without danger from the grasping
white hand of the summer girl
But here is where the native of the pines,
the man who knoweth not the razor nor
grammar, nor the almighty dollar, held
high carnival with pick and shovel Liv-
ing in the sands, with only the huckleber-
ries and pine cones for company, his soul
was filled with eagerness over the story
that 2 man had told his great grandfather,
who had passed it down the generations
until it arrived to harrow the erstwhie
happy possessor of a small watermelon
patch and cornstalks that could be counted
WHAT ONE MAN SAW.
The stories say that men used to see in
the days long ago, when the inlet was a
broad, deep bay, low black schooner
standing off and on at the mouth of the
inlet. At nightfall she would run into the
river, but at day break she would disap-
pear. A fisherman once, returning to his
home at night along lonely path which
wound through the woods near Money
HILL was startled by seeing schooner at
anchor few hundred yards from the
shore aud a boat full of men coming to-
ward the beach. The terror stricken young
ancestor of some of the present families of
the pines threw himself on the ground and
prayed very earnestly, for in those days no
ships would venture into the lonely inlet
at dead of night except pirates, he
thought, for they were the only ones sup
posed to know the channel except the few
fishermen.
Hesaw dozen bead eyed and brawny men,
with heads covered with red caps, clam
Der from the boat. By the aid of feeble
glare from lantern some of them began
to dig. Others handed huge boxes from
the boat, which appeared from their mo-
tions to be heavy. Flat on the ground, the
shiveriEg fisherman watched them as they
worked, with the dim light glimmering on
their silvered buckles on belt and shoe,
and making the red of their garments look
like blood.
He tried to crawl away noiselessly, for he
was suffering from a powerful trembling
that shook his frame, but, alas, the usual
twig snapped under him. As he glanced
over his shoulder he saw twenty pairs of
fierce dark eyes turned in his direction. He
gulped his heart back into its place and
boundpd vii down the nath
As he afterward, gray haired and infirm,
sat in the chimney corner, he told his
grandchildren that there followed him
curses in six different languages down the
forest pathway.
STORIES OF THE SEEKERS.
Then came the time of the treasure find
ers. Wild rumors have swept over the
pines at different times of certain fam
lilies growing suddenly and mysteriously
wealthy. They were said TO use very old
fashioned coins in buying The name of