The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-08-19
A Sailors Find
copyright, 1903, by C. b. Lewis

We were well to the south of the
Chagos islands, in the Indian ocean,
when we picked up man afloat on q
raft. He was not only n white man,
but a sailor, and his rudely construct
cd craft had cargo. Securely lashed
to the planks and timbers were four
large elephant tusks and an carthen
jar, together with two other jars con
tanning food and water.
The name of the rescued sailor was
William Scott He was second mate
of Ceylon schooner called the Hap
py Day. Three months before we
found him the schooner was wrecked
OH an island.
OF the crew Of eight men Scott
alone escaped. He believed this island
to be one of the castcrnmost of the
Chagos 1t was, he said, about II mile
in circumference, rocky and barren, but
having plenty of fresh water on It,
Scott lived on the barren rock for
fourteen long weeks without once
sighting a sail, and but for his own
strenuous efforts the time might have
been indefinitely prolonged. One day
4 lot Of wrcckage from some Unfortu-
nate native craft drove ashore, and he
secured planks and timbcrs and set
about building raft.
He lad made up his mind to 80 to
sea and take the chances Of being
picked up. His raft had been com
plctcd and he was collecting shcllfish
for food when he found the mouth of
II cave under bluff 1t turned out to
be Il wonderful discovery. In the cave,
which ran back for n considerable dis
tancc, he found over 200 elephant
tuslis and five jars OF gold dust. On
leaving tho island on his raft hc
brought away four of the tusks and
ono Of the Jars and there they were
for all OF us to sec.
Had the raft been without cargo the
mans story would have been laughed
found great fortune I'm gold and
ivory. He had proofs Of 1t with him.
1t made no difference that he could not
exactly locate the island or that none
such as lie described was on the chart.
He could only have come to us from an
island not so far away.
Our Scotch captain was incrcdulous,
and yet hc had to believe. lie thought
the matter over and then made the
castaway q proposition. The sailor
knew the value OF what he had Sc
cured; knew that he was we'll fixed for
the rcst Of his days, and, having
knocked about OH the raft week be-
fore we rescued him, he was not at all
anxious about what he had left behind
In the cave. The captain was, how
ever and so was every man Of the
crew.
The proposition was that Scott
should do his best to pilot us to the
island and take another jar OF gold
dust for his full share. The rest of the
treasure would fall to the brig for de-
Waiting from her voyage and landing
him in some civilized country.
1t was n hard bargain our captain
wished to drive, andN'he castaway
would mover have consented had he
not been told the crew would come In
for fair share of the loot
We were then 200 miles to the south
Of the Chugos, and, as the wind was
from the north we had to beat back
This was SLOW work, and we had not
yet made half the distance when we
got sale from the west which sent
us driving away toward tho Japanese
coast, and it was sixteen days before
we reached the islands.
The ChaGos archipelago consists of
score of Islands, banks and reefs.
While Scott believed that his island
was the castcrnmost of all he could not
be sure about ii, and we had to OK
amino each and every one as we came
to it, Running between them and
around them was slow work and we
had 20 feel our way and thus II was
six or seven days before we reached
the last.
We found. no such island rs described
by the castaway, and In our dsappoint-
mcnt and chagrin were inclined TO hc-
love him liar who was working out
some scheme. lie rCtuliatcd by point
ing TO bis treasure.
at Tic close of tho fourth day of sail
Ing lack and forth across Al sea of
which tho chart showed no land for
hundreds of miles in any direction but
the west, wc sighted an island which
Scott identified as soon as 1t could be
seen from tic deck.
As We came up to it VIC ran into
Siii''|l l'lt 'ittp i''i
for tho night within cables length Of
the beach Had tho night not been SO
dark the captain would have had Il
boat down. but as it was hc did not
dare chance ii. Such was the excite
mont aboard that no man slept for an
hour, and as soon as daylight had como
and the men he'd bite to eat we set
oil 10 secure the treasure.
We soon found the opening of tho
hay and rowcd toward 1t. Scott had
been OH the island for over year. and
the hut 10 occupied and the flagstaff
he erected were in plain sight ~ inc
end of the bay we came to the cave,
and lcaping out of the boat, the cap
tain was the first to enter.
y moment later lie rcappcarcd, and
for tho next quarter Of On hour ho
cursed as lave never heard n seaman
before or since. The cave had been
plundercd
One broken tusk had been left behind
and there was perhaps an ounce of
gold dust lying on the spot where Scott
bad cmptlcd the jars. That was proof
enough that lie had told straight
story.
When we landed and went up to the
hut we soon solved the problem. Somo
n.