The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-25

! of ID. A. Harris to become his angel" 1 and furnish him with funds. At the | time of this visit the only inhabitants
 of Cocos were @ German family named l Gerster, the remnants of a colony of l Germans who had come from Costa l Rlca, but abandoned the place after a | few months residence because of the unhealthy climate. They did oonsdera- prospecting and found traces of lead | and quicksilver, but no gold or treas- | ure.
 l Two or three hundred sailors from the Imperleuse were sent ashore with 1 picks and spades, and dug trenches in | parallel lines six feet apart and ten feet deep at the place indicated by chart which Hartford brought with him, but 1 they found nothing. He showed them also a tunnel or cavern ill the rocks, which they blew up with dynamite, without a sign of the $30,000,000 of sil- yer plate and jewels and gold. It rained torrents all the time, and dig ging was not only difficult but dan gerous, as there were several landelides. Hartford was left at San Jose de Qua temala, where he endeavored to per suade the captain of the United States steamert Alert to go down and cotinue the work, but the Imperieuse returned to Vancouver with nothing but story.
 Hartfors experience has been re- markabe. One of the most business like attempts to find the buried treas ure as made by a Mrs Byennan, the widow of a ship chandler in Nova Sco- tia, who heard the tale and obtained chart from sailor. She went across the continent to Victoria, interested several business men of that city 1n the project, and in March, 1897, sailed TOT Cocos in the schooner Aurora, under command of Captain Frederick Hack cit. When they landed in Chatham Bay, on the northeasterly point ot the island, they were amazed by meeting creature who seemed only half human He was dressed like Robinson Crusoe in skins of beasts, his hair and beard were long and tangled and his eyes were wild At first he could not, speak, but after they had given whlskey and allowed his wandering faculties to ad- just themselves he told his story.
 He said that some years before he had obtained a concession from the Costa Rican Government which gave him the exclusive right to search for the buried treasure, with the understand ing that he should pay over half of all he found. He brought from Punta Arenas a gang of men in the little gun boat Turalba and began excavations, guided by a chart which had been ob- tained from a descendant of one Of the original committee that made the cache. After working several weeks without result the men became discontented and insisted upon returning to Costa Rca. The captain of the gunboat ad- vised that they should be allowed to go and promised to returned with ne gang as soon as he could make the voyage. Hartford determined ito re- main, because he believed he had found again. But the Turalba never re- turned and he had been alone upon the island he could not say how long For the first few months he kept tally of passing days by making notches on sapling, but finally gave it up, and had almost abandoned himself to despair when the Aurora arrived.
 HARTFORD'S PROPOSITION.
 Mrs. Brennan and Captain Hackett | were deeply interested in this redation, I of corse, and after few days of confer | ence obtained this proposition from the | solitary islander:
 "I, Charles Hartford, have an agree | ment with and permission from the Cocta Rican Government to search for l hidden treasure on Cocos Island. I was landed by said Government on Septem- Der P. 1896 q think, and that Govern | ment agreed to come back for me in- | side of three months. I have not heard | from said Government since, and being | In a starving condition and with no means to obtain food and no way to get off the island, and having located | the large treasure, I make this agrea- ment with the captain and crew of the schooner Aurora. of Victoria. B. C., to | let them take half of the treasure of | whatever nature whether gold. silver or precious stones, for their side of the agreement. and to land me, Charles Hartford, at some convenient port in the United States with the other half of said treasure.'
 The documents bears the following indorsemnt in the sailorlike hand of Captain Hackett:
 ''The information we came to tho island for proving no good, we have hunted dug and bored, and were about to return home when said offer was made and accepted"
 Mrs. Brennan and Captain Hackett soon made up their minds that the treasure was beyond their reach, and induced Hartford to return with them to Victoria where their experience was related to Admiral Palliser, and by him reported to the Admiralty authorities in London.-Panama correspondence Of The Chicago Record.
 NOSTALGIA.