The San Francisco call., 1901-10-27
October
~ ~
1901

inlaid with jewels Further up the river
on the island they buried several iron
kettles filed with gold coin, and covered
up these caves in the same fashion as
they did the large one.
The captain and two men buried gold
crown. inlaid with priceless Jewels, and in
the same hole put small cask of precious
stones. He then killed the two men who
helped do the work However, the cap
tain was watched by one of the boys who
survived all of the pirates.
Meantime the pirates had lost many Of
their number in the various fights. and
the captain thought that that part of his
crew which he had left at Valparaiso
would return to the West Indies to ap-
propr1ate the treasure. He made a pro-
posal to the rest Of the crew left on the
island to return to the West Indies and
to get the treasure left there, then re-
turn to Cocos, divide there and disband.
Some Of his crew, dissatisfied with this
started a fight right on the island and
more than twenty men were killed then
and there. The survivors consented to
go with the captain to the West Indies
and carry out the plan.
In the meantime the crew in Valparaiso
had captured another vessel and set sail
for the West Indies to get the treasure
themselves. When they were outside Of
the port of Valparaiso they found that
they could not navigate the vessel. They
sighted another vessel, which turned out
to be a British man-of-war. The captain
OF this man-of-war, thinking the move
ments of the vessel suspicious, sent an
officer with some men on board to inves-
tigate AS all the pirates told different
stories they were looked upon as SUCH
They were taken on board of the British
man-of-war and were taken to England
for trial, which resulted in their being
hanged. One of them turned Kings evil
dence and offered to show where the
buried treasure was in the West Indies.
The English sent out the British man-of-
war Magician which found this island
and located some of the treasure
While the British man-of-war was
anchored there, the Relampago, the
vessel of Captain Benito, came into the
harbor shorthanded and sshort pro-
visioned. Before Benito knew where he
was he was right under the guns of the
man-of-war Magician. Captain Benito
saw that resistance was useless and blew
out his brains.
The rest of the crew were captured
and were tried for piracy at Kingston,
Jamaica, and eighty-one OF the pirates
were hanged on the yardarm of the man
of-war. While they were in prison two
of them, Thompson and Chapelle. who
had been forced to join the pirates
against their WILL got away and swan
to a whaler in port This whaler sailed
the same night, with Thompson and
Chapelle on board. These two men made
it up between them to keep everything
secret and made plans to obtain sufh-
cient money wherewith to get vessel to
return to Cocos Island. The two sur
vivors from the Relampago soon separ-
ated and lost sight Of each other.
After awhile each believed the other
dead and each organized an expedition,
Chapelle in England and Thompson in
Newfoundland. The English expedition
could not locate Cocos Island. and finally
their vessel was wrecked off the coast OF
Costa Rica, and Chapelle left all his pa
pers and information there.
The other expedition came to the island
and found some gold coin. Captain Boag
of that expedition disappeared. He prob
ably was murdered by a man by the
name of Heating. When Keating reached
Newfoundland he carried his person
gold and jewels to the value Of &S0OO.
He was accused Of numbering Captain
Boag and had hard time to get out
of It,
In 1897 received on the island q visit
from the second wife Of Keating, from
whom I obtained all the plans and
papers All Of the Chapelle papers were
obtained by me from Costa Rfca, and all
the marks indicated and set forth there
$ In have been found and verified, and, Of
course, are now known only to me. The
lapse of time and thu luxuriant tropical