The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-11-27

who had brought about the wholesale
death of the crew, and he must have
had strong motive. That motive was
discovered when some of the boxes of
treasure were hoisted out of the laza-
rette and broken open. Aside from
one or two boxes, the whole treasure
business was a fake. Lead had been
substituted for silver and gold. The
furs were a cheat and fraud, and
the value of the dyestuffs was not
one-quarter of the sum they were in
sured for. A second and closer search
of the stateroom evidently occupied by
the supercargo gave us the key to I'M
lock the whole mystery. He had left
behind him letter Of instruction sign
ed by Alvarez at the City Of Mexico,
and from that we learned that the
name of the dead man was Rrado.
That letter, written in Spanish was of
no aid to us except as far as the two
names went, but later on, when trans
lated into English, its contents were of
nature to make man turn pale.
The instructions were to do just what
had been done. After the Santa Maria
had reached a certain position he was
to poison the crew with certain drug
prepared and then scuttle the ship and
take his leave in a small boat. 1t was
doubtless figured that if not picked up
he could easily reach the coast of Chile;
but, as l have told you, we found him
dead In his boat How his death came
about cannot say, as he had food and
water and had not encountered any
bad weather / have always believed,
however that in his remorse for the
awful deed he had done, coupled with
the terrors of his lonely situation, he
deliberately drank Of the poison which
had laid the others low. 1t was before
the crew became too i'll to move about
that sail was taken off and she was
made snug against the weather.
With the auger hole plugged and a
part of our crew on board the Santa
Maria, we laid our course for the port
of Valdivia, and in due time both
craft arrived there in good shape.
The dead had been given burial of
course, but there was no lack of other
proofs. AS soon as the plot was I'M
raveled steps were taken for the ar
rest of Alvarez in Mexico, and our
claim for salvage was also fled Gov
ernments move slowly in international
matters 1t was months before they
got ready to arrest the man who had
plotted this sea tragedy. He had
meanwhile continued his career of dis
sipation and extravaganza, depending
upon his insurance money to make ev-
erything good. News got to him some
how from Valdivia of the derelict be-
ing towed in, and he left Mexico and
hid away in Bolivia. There he was at
last found, but he cheated the hang
man by committing suicide Years
later the crew Of the Homeward got a
few dollars apiece as salvage money.
The ship herself was lost at sea with a
full crew. You may ask why Prado
did not make a thorough job of scut-
Ting the Santa Maria while he was at
it. He must have been alone at the
time, except for the dead around him,
and he had sharp auger to work
with. Had he bored half dozen holes
instead of one the ship would have
gone uOWn UelOFe DcluS~ ONSIudu1euy
and in that case we could have made
nothing over finding his corpse in the
boat. The fact would have been en-
tered on the log and reported, but
would have caused no comment out
side of marine circles. Prado was
probably in great hurry to get away
from the death ship. and in his haste
he bored only the one hole and then
fed in something of panic. Had he
carried his letter away with him it
would have taken us longer to unravel
the mystery, though the cheat in the
cargo must have sooner or later been
discovered. AS a plot Matched against
the insurance companies it never had
nm equal, and as a tragedy of the sea
one must believe that young Prado
was little short of devil incarnate to
toolly sweep aside the IA human beings
who stood in his path.
Copyright 1900, by c. B. Lewis.l