The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-26

! precious stones, and fitting out a schooner.
set sail for the far island. Written history
OF the six, so goes the story. one was killed
and two died within a short time. Their
maps OF the islet disappeared. The other
three some years later fitted out an expedi-
ton which was storm beaten from the four
quarters OF heaven and finally driven back
upon the Central American coast, where
oaunted. the remaining two fitted out an
other ship. were cast upon the rOck-b0und
shore OF cocos in a gale and perished
Then begins a vague mortuary record
Early In the forties a party sailed from
Honduras in great secrecy, supposedly for
the treasure. The disappearing sails OF the
snip on the horizon were the last that NOR
tai eye ever saw Of that venture Two Ger
mans, wanderers upon the face OF the
earth, reached Cocos with an excursion and
refused to return. preferring TO stay and
search. Another excursion three years
later, found what had been the two Ger
mans. One was a skeleton the shore.
The other was a foul animal, human only
in form. They took him back-though not
until four OF their party had died Of
mysterious fever-and he died. raving.
within two days after they reached the
mainland. There are indefinite statements
or two other parties which found the island,
but nothing to reward their venture.
In the meantime maps of the island
bearing alleged markings of the treasure
location We're travelling abroad upon the
earth in the hands of sailors. Some came
| to New York and there was an abortive
| One landed i'm Boston. and wealthy store
keeper had such faith in IL that he fitted
out ship TO go around the Horn, only TO
die of a fever two weeks before the time set
for sailing The angel of death who guarded
that Island struck with a far-reaching'
| sword. OF the late attempts TO find the
treasure the most businesslike was made
| by Mrs. Brennan, Nova Scotian woman
| OF considerable means and great resolution.
A drunken sailor brought one of the maps
/ to the town where she lived and il came
n
| sideration she was ready 10 set about get
ting that treasure. She went to Victoria,
b. G.. got several business men of that
| city Interested in her project and in March,
| 1897, sailed for Cocos in the schooner
| Aurora. with Captain Fred Hackett and
| crew of eight men, reaching that island in
| June.
A VOLUNTARY MAROON
| ITO their intense amazement and disgust
| they were met upon the shore by human
/ being. To be sure he had almost forgot
| how to talk and was inclined to look upon
| them as apparitions who would presently
| vanish over the waves. as he declared all
| his other visitors had done, but he was
| still man, and his wits soon returned
| when he became used to the companionship
| of his fellow beings. In two respects, how
| ever. the Aurora people considered him un-
sound. First, he was positive that he had
| been there several years. although he adj
| mitted that he had lost track of the lapse
| OF time, and next he insisted that he had
/ found the treasure by a map which was
| the only genuine map in existence. 1t de-
| veloped that he was wide of the truth as
| Tar as his length of stay was concerned.
/ Little by little his story came out. The
| Costa Rican government had sent him to
the Island by the gunboat Turalba in Sep
TENDER, 1896, under contract to search for
the treasure. and divide il with the gov
| eminent should his search be successful.
| The Turalba was TO return i'm three months
Those three months the voluntary maroon
| tailed on small sappling. The gunboat
did not return, and at the end OF the fifth
| month he gave up hope. His fate was the
| more bitter in that he had located the
treasure after three weeks work. the map
having been somewhat indefinite. This
| story the newcomers refused TO believe
| and for nearly two months they explored
that island with pick and shovel while
| Hartford smiled. Finally he dictated the
| following agreement:
~, Charles Hartford, have an agree
ment with and permission from the Costa
| treasure on Cocos island. L was landed
| by said government on Sept. % q think.
| 1896, and that government agreed to come
back for me inside of three months.
| have not heard from said government, and
| being in a starving condition and with
| 10 means to obtain food and no way TO
| get of the island. and having located the
| large treasure, L make this agreement
with the captain and crew Of the schooner
aurora r:,, of T, Victoria Vic b. G.; to let them
| ture. 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 in
formation We came to the island for prov
ing no good we have hunted dug and
| bored, and were about TO return home
| when said offer was made and accepted.
| But the offer was not accepted. Mrs
| Brennan, CAPTAIN Hackett and two men
| of the crew held out against it. and finally
| these two men agreed TO stay and search
| while the ship returned for a supply of
a.x.t% 81 it,
facilitate the work Hartford returned in
the Aurora. which landed at Vancouver,
b. G.: on Aug. IA. 1897; He. left there to
| organize another expedition"
DOUBT CAST ON THE STORY.
When the Chicago Tribune story was
first printed the Chicago Post said:
THE story is new. 1t has not been print
ed for twenty-four years. Blackwood' >
Magazine for January, 1873 furnished the
| basis or the Tribune's most 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 treas
| ure hidden in one of the Pacific islands,
800 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 discovered the treasure in those
PARKWAY seas. The name of the author
| of the Blackwood's Magazine story was
rot given. Fashions in monthly papers
have changed good deal in twenty-four
L years But whoever was the rOmanCer
that penned the dream originally ii must
! be said that he did his work we'll The
| original story better thanl the new
| tale, because the 1000 words allowed the
! author more detail He seems to be an
| Irish physician and-instead of 1S97-he
| says in opening the story; 1T must have
| been in 80 or Sand then he pushed with
| The toe of his boot log little farther
| into the fire and hurled after 1T the stump
| of his cigar-'when | made my first voy-
| age a ships surgeon The elder tale
the better tale-carries the reader into a
| Panama hospital. where dying man kept
| repeating: Latitude degrees q minutes
| north, longitude 81 degrees Is minutes
| west. From which the Irish surgeon
| sagaciously concluded that a large guam
| tity 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 inwrought bracelets were
lheaped up on Cocos island-right where
| the Tribunes sailors the Imperieuse
| found them.
| 1.-The Irish doctor and the Panama sur
| geon, forgetting the Enclosed eyes of the
| dead man, left him stark and stiff on the
Eel