The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-08-25
SEEKING GOLD IN COCOS.
A British Cruiser Went There to Inves-
 vestigate.

NGSllSdlc.
 The enormous amount of gold that was found among the Indians by the conquistadores, the rich product of the mines in the Spanish colonial period, the successful raids of the pirates and the buccaneers that used to haunt these coasts, have naturally given rise to many tales Of buried treasures, and one of them involves the Cocos Island, a small "spot" of ground belonging to : Costa Rica, in latitude 5 degrees and 32 minutes and longitude S7 degrees and ? minutes, about four hundred miles southwest of Panama.
 The story goes that in 1921, during the revolution which separated the col onies from Spain, the wealthy Span iards of Central America, fearing that their houses would be footed and their savinge seized by the natives in rebel lion, loaded a schooner with gold and gems and silver plate and sent it in charge of committee, to Cocos Island to be buried until the troubles were over. Each of the committee Of six men had chart of it's location. One was killed during the revolution. Two died from natural causes before it was OySl. " WiCIl pteSC "sbo iCotolCi tIio other three started for Cocos to bring back the wealth, but were never heard from again. Their boat is supposed to have been driven back on the rocks of the island and all on board perished This was about 1880.
 No further attempt was made for several years to obtain the treasure, but then the heirs of the dead and the other owners of the property began to stir things up and organize eXpedi- tions for its recovery. Several parties went over with gangs of men to do the digging but never brought anything home. Alleged copies of the chart were made and sold to speculators after the secret had become generally known, and through the hands of sailors found their way to all parts of the world. Clandestine syndicates of treasure hum ters were formed and expeditions were sent secretly from New York. San Francisco and London, as well as from Panama and Central America. There has been a good deal of fighting and a good deal of fever for although the island is an attractive place, it is as unhealthful as the Garden of Hesperi- des. The Angel of Death seems to guard the buried treasure of Cocos Island as the dragon guarded the gol- den apples there
 Captain Leadbetter, a graduate of Annapolis Academy of 1884, who has command of the harbor fleet of the Panama Railroad, has been over there. but declares that it was in search of pleasure rather than treasure. He says a mi ho with broken walls of rock that are al- most perpendicular There is occa- sonally a ravine down which stream of water rushes, or a strip of sandy beach, against which the surf breaks with great violence. The entire sur- face is covered with luxuriant vegeta- tion. great spreading trees, strange plants and vines and beautiful foliage, l which furnish a remarkable field for botanical research. There are many large streams also. and several small | lakes, three hundred or four hundred | yards across, deep reservoirs of pure, cold water bubbling up from the cen ter of the earth. It is said to be the ! finest water in the Pacific.
 According to these tales, Cocos Island | must be an ideal place for a Robinson | Crusoe. It has abundant fish and l water fowls, turtles are plentiful and | crabs of prodigious size, and the woods | are full of wild pigs and goats that were abandoned by the early inhabi- tants and have multiplied. The great | objection is the moisture. The island lies in what the sailors call the dol drums, strip of sea a few degrees north of the equator, between the east and the west trade winds. In that re- gion there is seldom any breeze, and sailing vessels always avoid it for fear of getting becalmed The rainy season extends the year round, and the pre- cipitation is so large as to be almost in credible.
 Two or three years ago the Imper- teuse flagship of the British squadron Of the North Pacific, with RearAdmi- ral Palliser in command, came all the way from Vancouver to Cocos with or ders from London to investigte the claims of one Charles Hartford, an Englishman who has a concession from the Government Of Costa Rica to search for the treasure on commission, and lad interested capitalist by the name