The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-10
THE LAST PIRATES MILLIONS.
An Arkansas Man Claims to Know
Where They Are on the Florida

From The St. Louis clone Democrat


Coast.
From the St Louis Globe Democrat.
There is g., DOC, 900 in gold buried down
on the Florida coast, and St. Louis mer-
chants have been asked to help recover it.
The exact location of the treasure is
known, and all that is needed to get it is
the requisite nerve and energy and the
paltry sum of $4,000 to fit out an expedi-
ton. The directors of the Merchants Elk
| change have il under their thumb, and are
jealousy guarding it lest an enterprising
private citizen grab the good thing offered
and secure the golden booty. The story
| of the treasure reads like one OF Robert
Louis Stevenson's romances, but is
vOuched for by the best of authorities.
Part of it is told in letter that George
H. Morgan, Secretary of the Exchange,
| has secure locked up in burglar-proOf
safe. The letter was received yesterday,
and it was directed to the Board of Di-
| rectors. After being discussed by the
Board it was committed to the care of
Secretary Morgan who allowed several
| members TO peruse it without seeing the
name. Then, when inquiries began to be
made about it and the interest to increase
the secretary concluded to place the
! precious communication under lock and
key and await developments. To all en-
only information that could be cleaned
was from parties who had been favored
| with the privilege of perusal.
The letter is from a prominent Arkan-
sas merchant. 1t consumes four large
sheets of paper, closely written, and
makes a number of very bold assertions.
The merchant starts out by telling the
president and board of directors" of the
| exchange that he needs their aid to the
| tune of $4,000 If he did not need it he
would go ahead and get the gold himself.
| Upon his marriage recently, he says, he
| came into possession of chart, n map,
| and comprehensive guide to a portion of
| the Florida coast where the money Is hid
| den. His wife received the data from a
New Orleans physician several years ago,
Just previous to his death. Years before
this the physician, sitting at the death
| bed of poor patient, had been given the
secret as pay for his services. Twenty
| years before this deathbed scene the pa
tient had been intrusted with the papers
by another dying man in New Orleans
This man was the last survivor of the
party that had buried the gold.
The history of the whole survivors, eff
forts to regain possession of the treasure
he had helped bury was a pathetic one
Worn out with fatigue he had landed in
New Orleans about the close of the cen
fury. The frightful hardships he had un-
frame of iron, and he was taken from his
sailors lodging house To the hospital more
dead than alive. He still kept the pre-
cious chart and map, however, deter
mined to return to the FLORIDA coast as
soon as couyalescent. His sickness lasted
nearly two years, and when he was finally
turned out of the hospital he was pin ysi-
cal wreck. With logged perseverance,
however, he set out to prepare for his ex-
pedition after the gold. His appearance
was against him, though, and men TO
whom he told his story regarded him as a
| maniac. He all but succeeded several
times, but as each scheme seemed about
to develop, some untoward event shat
tered his plans. The war of 1872 coming
| on defeated what promised to be his
greatest expedition, and after that he had
| not the energy TO try again. He kept the
papers until his death, and only then did
he resign all hope OF securing hefOrtune
Dying, he left them to his nearest friend,
with the promise that the treasure would
be searched for and found.
The same fate, however. that had pur
sued the unfortunate pirate seemed to
follow the second owner of the papers.
Try as he might, all his plans went by
the board, and he died as penniless and
as far from the treasure as the man from
whom he got them. Business and family
| interests prevented the physician from
searching for the gold, though he had al
ways intended TO make the hunt before
he died.
The writer of the letter to the Ex-
| change grows quite melO-dramat.c when
he describes the events leading up to the
burial of the treasure 1t was in the
troublesome days of the close of the eight
teenth century, he says, when the Gulf
of Mexico was still terror to owners Of
merchant vessels from the presence of
the pirates who infested its roads of
travel and tree-grown isles. Foremost
among these marauders was the Skipper
| Of SaWyer's Key" named from the coral
island upon which he pitched his rendez-
vous, and to which he usually brought his
booty His craft La Mort (Death), was
more dreaded than the cholera or yellow
fever, for the skipper knew no mercy. For
years his black flag waved over scenes of
carnage too horrible for pen TO picture,
and the very atmosphere OF the South
western Florida coast was Stunned by all
vessels that did not bear regiments Of
soldiers and double rows Of cannon. The
last cruise of the pirate was a singularly
successful one 1t was in the autumn Of
year, when ships from South America
were bearing to England, France and
Spain many rich planters profits of
twelve-mOnth. Some Of the ships bore
ingots of gold and silver mined from the
southern mountains. Many fine lady,
bedecked with costly gems, accompanied
her lord to the old world. The same fate
that made the harVests rich and the
winds fair caused dozens of these vessels
to fall into the hands of the skipper
aboard La Mort. The planters were re-
leved of their money bags aud ingots, and
the ladies of their diamonds and rubies
Before the cruise was over the skipper
had gathered in over 100000 worth of
gold
Finally he started for Sawyer's Key
there TO divide the booty and spend a
winter in revelry and drunkenness. But
ne never reached his port. A storm, the
like Of which seldom ever visited the
Gulf, swept down upon La Mort and tore
her shrouds from her masts as though
they were but tissue paper. The helm
broke. the masts themselves snapped like
pipestems in the hurricane, and large
waves rolled from stern TO stern Of the
ship, washing away the bulwarks and
scores of unfortunate seameE. With all
haste the longboat was launched and a
few Of the crew loaded in the treasure,
few provisions. and supply of water, and
resigned themselves to the mercy Of the
| waves The storm lasted three DAYS,