The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-07-13
TREASURE
LIES IN A KONA CAVE
Spanish Dollars, Hidden Away for BenevoIenc, S,
Which Are Yet to Be
Uncovered.


yarns of Capt. Walker and Capt.
Blanchard?" asked the old mariner.
isn't it queer that these lone islands.
where the doubloons are cached by the
shipwrecked mariners are always sit
uated some thousands of miles away
from the spot where the possessor of
the secret happens to be? Yes, that's
so: there was that expedition which
was fitted out in San Francisco last
year and touched at Honolulu. They
were on to sure thing, but just at
present they are fighting in the sgd
which was to carry them to the desert
island. The lawyers, like those near
at hand, are the only fellows that are
making anything out of the scheme.
However, that reminds me that
there is no necessity for going so far as
Juan Fernandez, Palmyra Island or
even r. L. Stevenson's treasure island.
can put you on to a good thing, near
er to hand, but you mustn't give it
away AS soon as sugar goes up, 1
expect to get back some of my good
United States gold coin and I'll then
make a bee line and unearth the six
teen to one stuff. And I'll be pretty
we'll prepared for tackling the job, as
the man that undertakes to secure the
coin has got a lot of lava tunnelling
to do, and during the last few years
I've been getting pointers in that line
at Kihei, McBryde and Oahu coal
mines-I mean sugar plantations.
"Well, it's rather a long story, but it
happened this way, don't you see. 1
struck these islands way back in 1870.
Arrived on the steamer Wonga Wonga
which used to trade up and down be-
tween the coast and Australia. 1 had
considerable coin with me and was do
ing a bit of sightseeing on my way
around the world. 1 knocked around
Honolulu for a while until June, 1871,
and then went up to Hilo, saw the Vol
cano and rode down to Punaluu where
took passage on board a pulu laden
schooner bound for Honolulu. We got
becalmed under the lee of Mauna Loa
and after drifting about for week
or so our water gave out and we were
forced at length to launch our dingy
and pull in shore to Kealakekua Bay
in order to get u supply of water. AS
L was tired of the monotony on board
the schooner, determined to land at
Kealakekua and continue the journey
later on. 1 put up with the only white
man on the beach, an old Englishman,
one of the real old timers. who had
lived over forty years on Hawaii and
most of that period in the Kona dis
trict. After our supper of poi and dried
opelus, moistened with a little okole-
hao, the natural light wine of the coun-
try, we began talking about things in
general, and at last got on to the sub
ject of the caves which 1 had noticed
that afternoon on the face of the steep
cliff overhanging the bay.
We'll, the old boy told me a lot about
the different caves he had explored,
some of them at Waimea being of vast
extent and used since time immemo-
rial as places of burial; others at Ke-
kaha, the Laniakea cave at Kailua,
and others again south from Kaawaloa
all along the coast as far as Kau.
About midnight the old man began to
feel the effects of the okolehao and had
got to look upon me as a long lost
brother. 1t was at this stake that he
told me of how he got to know about
a certain cave where a lot of money
was hidden.
soon after the Old man ran away
from his ship at Lahaina, he drifted up
to Kailua on Hawaii. At that time
there were very few white men in the
Kona district. and what ones there
We're. not counting the missionaries,
lived in native fashion. He soon be- |
came the sworn friend or aikane of /
an elderly native who had formerly !
been puuku or treasurer for Queen |
regent of the kingdom
and one of the widows of Kamehameha |
the First. Kamehameha was a shrewd /
chief and was a good hand at money |
Through the bartering of /
supplies TO visiting trading vessels and /
also by shipping sandal wood to China,
ne had acquired quite an extensive COL
lection of muskets, furniture, dress
goods and clothing and last but not
least of Mexican and Spanish dollars.
After his death most of the miscel-
aneous property fell into his son Lii
holiho's hands, but the dollars some
how or other We're seized by Kaahu-
manu-. his principal wife. and she man
aged to secrete the old warriors pile in
one of the valleys to the east of Ro-
nolulu. After Kamehameha's death.
a. alarrr mn 1T