The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-13

Tale of Buried Treasure Revived Aft
er Twenty-FOur Years.

Some enterprising newspaper correspond
ent at Victoria, B. c., has bill for four
hundred words against the Chicago Trib-
une, on which an excellent telegraph
editor wrote a readable head beginning
Treasure Not a Myth" and adding the
statement in nonpareil full-face type i'm
portant if true-that there has been fabu-
lous wealth found on barren Cocos island.
The story is new. 1t has not been printed
for twenty-four years Blackwoods Maya
zine for January, 1873, furnished the basis
of the Tribune's interesting story. 1t was
then called THE Lost Secret of the Cocos
Group" and detailed, as the Tribune article
does to-day, the perfectly paralyzing
amount of gold and silver treasure hidden
in one Of the Pacific islands, three hundred
miles west-southwest from Panama. About
the only new thing there is In the Tribune
story is a change in the name of the ships
and the Adventures who have at last dis
covered the treasure In those far-away
woods Magazine story was not given.
Fashions in monthly papers have changed
a good deal in twenty-four years. But
whoever was the romancer that penned the
dream originally, it must be said that ne
did his work We'll And he must have
correspondent, for he sold four-thousand-
word story to the magazine, while the daily
paper would take no more than four hum
dred.
The Tribunes story is very interesting.
1.-The British flagship 17nperieuse''-it is an
odd flagship for England to oatpe
Cocos island in the Pacific ocean, five hun
bred miles west of Panama. 1t went to that
island for the purpose of searching for
the treasure, supposed to be worth $4,000,
600, which is reported to have been buried
there early in the present century. One
story tonight is that the Imperieuse has
on board $15 00,000 in gold and jewery."
That is an Improvement on recent klon-
dixie arrivals at Victoria. But it doesn't
matter a great deal where on the racine
The original tale-doubtless known to the
Victoria orrespondents-makes it possible
for the treasure to turn up at any telegraph
station from Sitka to the Straits of Magel-
Ian. 1t is only a chance that the Victoria
correspondents telegraphed it this time. The
guileful writer made it salable to the Trib-
une by saying that the man who came back
with part Of tie Sl5,cOO,OOO is a native OF
Rockford, Ill.
the COO words allowed the author more de-
tail He seems to be an Irish physician,
,and-instead of 1S97-he says III opening the
story:
ut must have been in IS or '56''-and
then he pushed with the toe of his boot
log a little farther into the fire and hurled
after it the stump of his clgar-"when |
made my first voyage as ships surgeon. "
The elder tale-the better tale-carries
the reader into Panama hospital where
dying man kept repeating Latitude de-
grees q minutes north, longitude 81 degrees
Is minutes west" From which the Irish
surgeon sagaciously concluded that a large
quantity of treasure was buried in an island
at about that point in the watery world.
So he and DR.. McGill, head surgeon OF the
hospital. waited until the babbling man died
-neglecting the proper formality of closing
his eyes-and then opened the ships box at
the foot of the bed and found charts and
memoranda which told them that gold and
silver coin, jeweled crosses and intricately
bracelets were heaped up on
Cocos island-right where the Tribunes
sailors on the Imoerieuse found them.
The Irish doctor and the Panama surgeon,
forgetting the Enclosed eyes of the dead
man. left him stark and stiff in the hos
pital cot and sped away to the westward.
CTs1E
geon went first, and came back with muir
der, but no gold rings. on his hands. Then
they tried II together. with company OF
blooded Panama men behind them, and
reached the island on a small steamer, and
a very proper crew. They found the tree
spoken OF in the diary OF the dead man.
1t was a very remarkable tree. as its
shadow pointed TO the cache of the treas
ure. 1t was still more remarkable as In its