Evening star., 1903-08-15

groes from the shore and made them row
him to another islet about four miles OF.
According to the story which the negroes
told on their return, he walked straight up
to lone palm tree on the islet, measured
distance by PAGES to the southeast after
consulting chart, and then made them
dig. morning. noon and night; all around
large circle he marked out. When they
grew tired and stopped he foamed at the
mouth with passion and threatened them
with his rife.
After two days hard digging they found
big sea chest, so heavy that the three of
them could hardly drag it to the boat.
They rowed back to the schooner, and as
soon as the chest had been hoisted aboard
the American weighed anchor and sailed
away north
There is much speculation in West Caicos
and throughout the Bahamas as to who
how he learned that 1t was there. It is
supposed that he got big pirate treasure
and some people even think that he secured
the famous hoard of Capt. Kidd. But no.
BODY has ever found out anything about
the matter.
A cayman Shippers Lucky Haul.
One Of the queerest West Indian treasure
stories was told by the skipper of a Grand
Cayman schooner in Kingston, Jamaica
The story is too widely improbable for any
writer of fiction, but it's absolute truth can
be attested to by hundreds of people in
Jamaica and Grand Cayman.
"A Dark had been wrecked on a reef near
the Cayman Islands, and the skipper had
taken his schooner there to hunt for sal
wage While his men were busy on the
bark he looked over the side of his vessel
and saw. about eight feet below the water
on shelving ledge of the reef curious
yellow CLEAN. He thought it was piece
Oh copper sheathing and told one of his
men to dive for it, The man came up with
his hands full of gold coin-Spanish deub-
looms and pieces-of-eight, dating back to
the early days of the cOnuuiStadoreS The
ledge was simply covered with loose gold.
All day the crew dived for it and when
they had skinned the place bare they found
they had over two thousand gold pieces,
besides few score of silver coins, all
Spanish. The skipper showed several of
the coins to prove his story. They were
all in a remarkably fine state of preserva-
ton. He sold the lot afterward for nearly
$4,000 to a Jamaica Jew.
How the coins came on the reef nobody
knows hundred explanations have been
suggested, but none of them quite meets
the case.
There is an Englishman now living in a
fishing hamlet in Kent England. who was
driven mad by his vain search for treasure
in the West Indies He is hopelessly in
sane. Formerly he was a colonel in the
British army and served with distinction in
several wars. Late in life he caught the
treasure hunting fever and sold all he had
in order to tit out a yacht and hunt for
hoard buried, so legend says, by Mansvelt.
the famous bucanneer, on Anguilla Island.
He searched for years, until in the end dis
appointment turned his brain.
Superstitious Treasure-Seekers.
In the British West Indies, more espe-
cially in Barbedoes and Grenada, large
holes dug in the earth apparently for no
purpose frequently seen. Inquiring the
reason of them. the reply is that they have
been made by the blacks digging for buried
money.
1t is curious fact that West Indian
negro rarely, if ever. sets about looking
for treasure Of his own accord
An ''obea Imam witch doctor) comes to
him and says:
"Obi. the all-seeing, has told me In a
dream there is money buried beneath the
roots of the old cottonwood tree. which you
are to dig UP and keep. You must go there
at midnight to dig. But hearken to my
warning! When that treasure was buried
the owner killed the slave who dug the
hole and buried his body top of the gold.
Unless you pay me $40 to put good obeab
on the ground, the 'duppy' (ghosD of that
slave will go on sinking the money deeper
and deeper into the earth, so that you will
never find it,
gro will believe anything except that which |
is true AT any rate, he believes the obeah-
man and parts with his $40. 1t goes with
out saying that the obea ahman is the only
person who gets any treasure
This is common incident. 1t happens
every day in some of the West Indian colo
MES These illiterate old African witch
doctors have hit on the same idea-the
skeleton buried with the gold-which Edgar
Allen Poe worked SO finely in The Gold
Bug
There is another kind of swindler who
sometimes makes a rich haul out of the Gu
pldity of higher grade of society He is
the man who has a chart showing the To-
cation of some pirate treasure-generally
Captain kidds He knows just where to
lay his hands on it, but he wants capital
TO equip schooner and fit out small ex-
petition. If you will find the capital he will
divide the treasure with you when found
1t seems an obvious Swindle. Of course
II you do part with your money, you
never see it again, or the treasure either
Buying a gold brick is better specula-
ton. And yet shrewd merchants in the
West Indies have allowed themselves to be
swndied in this way, so greatly have they
been excited by tales of treasure trove and
by the desire 10 get rich quick"