The times., 1897-05-16
The Strange Story Of the Ameri-
can, Granger.
A MILLION-DOLLAR DEPOSIT
How One Plausible Lunatic Fooled
Ships Company Into "a Long
and Useless Voyage After Myti--
ical Treasure-A Suicide at
Last.

we Ntlc ]yitib dt foiHE III VIC III A6
AlbatrGss, waiting to take on Iew tons
OF freight for Liverpool, when an American
named James Granger came aboard. lie
was man i'll the prime OF life, tall, stout
and handsome, and he had q personal
magnetism beyond any man l ever met
His business was with the captain at first,
and he had singular story to tell lie
was New York ship-owDer, he said, ana
mad taken trip to China and Japan in
one of his own vessels, a brig called the
Red King, for the benefit OF his health.
She had been east away several months
before i'll the China Sea, and all handslos
save himself. He managed to reach a
small island, and, after two weeks, was
taken off by native craft and trans
ferred 10 an English merchantmen. A
part of the island was sterile and rocky,
and amidst the rocks he one day found
robbers cave. There were, lie contendeii,
thousands OF yards of silk and other valu-
able fabrics, boxes OF pearls, chests of
jewelry and kegs Of coin. lie had counted
out $780, 600 in gold without counting it
all, and he roughly estimated mis- :ind TO
be worth s 10000 He was sure that
the stuff had been hidden away for long
years, and he discovered that portions had
been taken from vessels which had mys-
teriously disappeared in the China sea
years before. 1t was the cave OF a band
of Chinese pirates, and the entire band
had been lost or captured az sea He had
with him, two pearls, diamond ring and
several gold coins as proof of his state
ments.
What Granger wanted was TO charter
ship TO fetch away the treasure, and he had
boarded us because he had heard that We
were to discharge cargo at Singapore and
reload for Bombay. He talked with our
captain for two hours, and then the chief
mate was called into the cabin. The
story was all gone over again, and then
was called down. Noman could tell a more
plausible story, nor could anyone have de-
manded better proofs. The only weak point
was that ne was no ma inner and could not
locate the island. That is, we knew there
was 40 such island as he described within
200 miles OF the spot where he insisted it
was Had our captain been free to charter
think ne would have taken chances Had
the chief officer not been impatient to get
home aud marry and ia ke command OF
ship | am sure he would have beer ready
to sail craft to the island AS neither
wouid go Granger turned 70 me. II our
eaptain would release me was free to go,
and as understood navigation he need have
no fear that | would hit the spot aimed for.
Sailors hear good many yarns q bout buried
treasure and pirates caves and | was not
ready to give an answer off-hand 1agresd
To let Granger have my decision next day,
and he went away after swearing lis all
to silence. Then the three of us went over
his story in detail to try and satisfy our
selves The result was that the captain
said:
well, it is the stIaightest story / ever
heard from a castaway, and If you want
to 60 with him Ill release you II you
get the treasure you can quit the sea; if
not you will not have lost so very much. .
Next day ! gave Granger my decision
and went ashore with him. found that
he had plenty OF money and was in good
standing with business men. He went to
more pains than / demanded TO prove his
identity, and he insisted oD written con-
tract that was to rave generous share
OF the treasure. In the course Of week
got hold Of a schooner which was for charter
and ten days later had fitted her out for the
voyage. ! saw MI Granger two or three
times day during this time and grew tore
spect him very much. He seemed to Inc
to be very thorough business man, and
was well spoken of by all. 1t was given
out that our object was to search for other
survivors who might have escaped, and as
there happened TO be q surplus OF seamen
at Singapore just then l had 10 trouble
in securing a crew of fiist-class men-an
English-speaking. We cleared for q IoIt
| in Japan, md got away with fair wind,
and during the two weeks took us to work
up to the locality of Changers Island all
went well with us He had located the
island as being about fifty miles to the
| east of the island of 1lainan.
My chart showed a clear sea for SEQ
miles in every direction, but in those days
moharted islands were being reported every
month, and it was possible that the bit
of land ON which he had spent month
had been missed in the surveys. was not
at all disappointed, however, when we
failed to find it. We overhauled junk
after junk to he told thatno such island had
ever been heard OF, and when at last L sat
down with Mr.. Granger to learn what we
should do it struck me for tie first time
that there was something queer about nm.
lie did not betray the disappointment one
would have expected, and | thought he
glanced at me III a fmtIve, cunning way.
/ asked him to go over his story again, and
to my astonishment he doubled on himself.
He had said in the fiji st place that his brig
was bound to Japan when lost lie nov
| declared that she was homewa ard bound.
He got his days and dates mixed up, and
! if l hadn't concluded that he was under
| the influence of liquor l should have thought
| him crazy AS near as / could figure out
| from the statements ne made the Red
King was between the capes of Siam
and the Philippine Islands when caught
| in the typhoon and driven to the eastward.
| The Philippines are counted by the hum
dred, large and small, and it would not
| have been at all strange had he landed on
| one of the westernmost. He agreed with
me in my deductions, and the schooner was
| put about and ran to the south for three
| days.
When we finally got among the islands
| the difficulty was in locating the right
| one. Granger had been swept ashore at
night H e had landed on one side of the
| island and been taken off ON another
| H e claimed to remember certain landmarks,
| however aud for ten days we thread, our
way among the islands, and he took a
| long and close look at each one His
| queer demeanor passed away soon after
our talk, and 1 found myself fully believ-
| ing In him again. No man could have
| heard his story and doubted it. He went
| into each minute particular and you felt
| certain he had passed through all he claim
| ed, and back of all were the souvenirs he
| had brought away with him. Itmight have
been on the twelfth day of our search
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