The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-11
TALES or THE GULF.
A Chicago Man Who Owns an Island
Tells Many Strange stories.

From the Chicago Times Herald.
John NJ. Roach president OF the Chi
cego Union Traction Company, has
pirate island" Off the coast Of Florida,
which is as good a field for adventure as
it was 100 years ago, when the buccan-
GERS and the smugglers were its lords
and masters.
Three weeks of life on 1t. brought to an
end by MIR. Roach's recent return to this
city, gave him an exciting fight with a
devil fish, found him washed off his sail
boat by storm into a sea fun of sharks,
| gave his servants chance TO dig up
skeletons near his back door, and allow
| ed him to look pensively into a. hole IN
| the ground from which somebody else had
dug up $17s,000 OF pirate gold
Mr.. Roach calls his island paradise
but his friends say It is the happiest
hunting ground they know of. Its name
Is Useppa, the same name It was given
when discovered, and it lies in the Gulf
of Mexico near Punta Gorda, about six
teen miles off the coast. It's area Is only
100 acres, but every acre is a kingdom.
Mr. Roach has owned 1t for five years.
He was accompanied in his visit this
Winter by his wife and Mr.. and Mrs.
Lyon Roach He had hardly got there
when the adventures began. The first
was while he was sailing on the sound.
A storm came up which sent the little
beat spinning through the waves, some
times with one rail submerged and the
bottom far out of water, sometimes pitch
ing forward till 1t seemed almost to stand
on end.
Mr. Roach was very slow in getting
warmed up to tell of the adventure when
seen at his home, 2007 Surf street, but he
finally said: my son was at the rudder.
md I..1 al al ha af IN
The Captain of the boat was tending
strictly to business and saying nothing,
and the rest of us were laughing without
appreciate that there was any danger.
Suddenly the boom swung around and
they say some of us went into the water"
rs that all of the adventure, Mr..
Roach?
""rhey call that boom the fool chaser"
was his solemn answer.
Then he confessed: II went over, too.
was in the water up to my neck. but
managed to catch hold Of the side of the
boat and got pulled back to my friends. /
won't do It again"
How about the sharks, Mr.. Roach?'
They were there, too" he answered.
but you don't need to take them into
account for don't think they were man
eaters"
Mr.. Roach goes fishing with line and
island later this spring for tarpon fishing,
when l. Is in season. But he won't try
to spear a devilfsh again.
II was doing near Mr. Roach's wharf
when he went for II. He fastened hun
dred yard5 Of rope to the spear and hitch
ed one end of the rope firmly to a strong
post. Tfe held the rope so as to pay 1t
out az soon as he had thrown the weapon,
but the devihsh did all the paying out
A.. |Hrgf
pitching The spearman into the water. The
second tore the rope through his hands
so that he dropped It., and another pull
little later snapped the heavy rope like a
bit of Irvine and let the monster go out
into deep water.
on land things were just as exciting.
Some gardeners planting an orange tree
had not dug over two feet when they
came upon complete human skeleton.
The skull had small hole in It, evidently
made by a bullet
Mr.. Roach's experience with hidden
treasure came at the time Of his last
visit before the one just finished. He
knew that legend placed a lot OF gold
buried on the island, and he had engaged
men with electrical instruments to at
tempt to locate any bidden metal. That
was as far as he ever got
1--WE had just about determined the
spot 10 ulB' ne rdlh, WHeh one nlBnt
two Spanards and "A negro came to the
wharf in a small boat and asked to stay
over night on land. They said they were
fishers, and consented The next morn
ing we found hole In the ground, a num-
Der of fragments of broken pots. and
piece OF a parchment chart, which had
been torn and lost in their hurry
II secured an expert TO estimate the
amount Of money which the broken pots
had contained. and he put the figure at
SITS, 600 The men had evidently come d.
rect from Spain with the chart. one Of
them was arrested on land later, but
gave no satisfactory information"
Mrs. John NJ. Roach and Mr.. and Mrs
+. Lyons Roach will remain on the island
several weeks longer. and Mr. Roach will
return to It as soon az his business will
permit