The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-09
A MADMAN'S SEARCH.
BIZ CHARLES D. LEWIS.

We were lying at Singapore i'll the
brig Albatross, waiting to take on a
few tons of freight for Liverpool,
when an American named James
Granger came aboard. He was a
man in the prime of life, tall, stout
and handsome, and he had a person
al magnetism beyond any man l
ever met. His business was with the
captain at first, and he had singu-
lar story to tell.
He was a New York shipowner,
he said, and had taken a 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 cast away several months
before in the China sea, and all
hands lost save himself. He man
aged to reach a small island, and
after two weeks was taken off by q
native craft and transferred to an
English merchantmen.
A part of the island was sterile a2d
rocky, and amid the rocks he one
day found a robbers cave. There
were. he contended, thousands of
yards of silk and other valuable fab
RIGS, boxes of pearls, chests of jew
clry and kegs of coin. He had count
ed out 100000 in gold without
counting it all, and he roughly esti-
mated his find to be worth S1,00O,-
600.
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
mysteriously disappeared in the
China sea years before 1t was the
cave of band of Chinese pirates,
and the entire band had been lost OF
captured at sea. He had with him
two pearls, diamond ring and sew
eral gold coins as proof of his state
MentS.
What Granger wanted was to char
ter a ship to fetch away the treas
ure, ard he had boarded us because
he had heard that we were to dis
charge cargo at Singapore and re-
load 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. No
man could tell a more plausible
story, nor could any one have de-
manded better proofs. The only
weak point was that he was no mar
iner and could not locate his island
that is, we knew there was no such
island as he described within 200
miles of the spot where he insisted
it was.
Had our captain been free to char
ter / think he would have taken
chances. Had the chief officer not
been impatient to get home and
marry and take command of a ship
I am sure he would have been ready
to sail craft to the island. AS nei-
ther would go, Granger turned to
me. If our captain would release
me, was free to go, and as I under
stood navigation he need have nc
fear that I would hit the spot aimed
for.
Sailors hear good many yarns
about buried treasure and pirates
caves, and Twas not ready to give an
answer offhand. / agreed to let
Granger have my decision next day
and he went away after swearing us
all to silence. Then the three of us
went over his story in detail to try
and satisfy ourselves. The result
was that the captain said:
"Well, it is the straightest story |
ever heard from a castaway, and if
you want to go with him I'll release
you. If you get the treasure, you
can quit the sea; if not, you will not
have lost so very much.
Next day gave Granger my de-
cision and went ashore with him. l
found that he had plenty of money
and was in good standing with busi-
ness men. He went to more pains
than I demanded to prove his iden-
tity, and he insisted on q written
contract that l was to have gener-
Gus share of the treasure. In the
course of week l got hold of a
schooner which was for charter and
ten days later had fitted her out for
the voyage 1 saw Mr. Granger two
or three times a day during this time
and grew to respect HIM very much.
He seemed to me to he a very thor
ough business man and was well
spoken Of by ali 1t was given out
that our object was to search for
other survivors who might have es-
capped, and as there happened to be
4 surplus Of seamen at Singapore
Just then had no trouble III secur-
ing crew of first class men-all
English speaking.
We cleared for a port in Japan
and got away with Il fair wind, and