The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1903-09-24
TALES OF
BURIED
TREASURE
Hayti Especially Rich
in This Kind of
Wealth
French Buried Large Sums
During the InSurectiOn-
Captain Kidd Credited
With Some

Expeditions are contoinually being fit-
ted out at ports along the Atlantic sea.
board to search the palm covered
islands and coral Gays of the West
Indies for the boards of old Spanish
gold and pirate booty which are sup
posed to be hidden there.
Not long ago a private yacht was
secretly fitted out in New York for
West India treasure hunt, other ex-
pedltions have started recently from
Philadelphia, Boston. Newport News,
New Orleans and other ports.
Nor is the hunt confined to Ameri.
cans. A year does not pass without
expeditions leaving London. Glasgow.
Liverpool or other Engllshh ports.
while the West Indians themselves.
living in an atmosphere OF treasure
stories. are naturally the keenest of
all the hunters of phantom gold.
Sometimes these expeditions never
return. The ship is reported missing
and another is added TO the long roll
of ocean tragedies OF which the public
hears little or nothing. Years after
ward a few bleached bones on re-
mote islet. or derelict floating in the
track Of shipping. tells tale OF ship
wreck, mutiny or death by those dis
eases most dreaded by seafaring men
yellow fever and berl-beri.
Some months ago no fewer than Ave
treasure-hunting expeditions we're re-
ported at Kingston. Jamaica. The
Earl OF Crawford and Balcarres had
brought his yacht into the harbor on
West Inoian cruise and Il was said
that he was combining business with
pleasure and meant 10 hunt for a pi-
rate treasure reported to be buried on
the tiny island OF Anegada, in the Vir-
gin group Apparently he had no
luck.
The second expedition was headed
by an Englishman. who hoped to find
the secret hoard left by King Christie
pher OF Hayti. The third was a small
AFFAIR. got up by a Jamaica planter,
who aimed at locating the treasure OF
the buccaneer king. Sir Henry Nor.
gan. This is said TO be buried in a
cave In Gun hill, Trelawny, jamaica,
and to be guarded, like Captain Kldd's
by the devil in person--hoofs. horns.
tail. pitchfork and all.
Two other expeditions were work.
ing in santo Domingo and the Cayman
islands.
This was a period OF special activi-
ty in the treasure hunting-line. but
such enterprises are so familiar to the
creoles that they hardly excite com.
ment Some men waste their lives
and fortunes fitting all over the Car
ibbean sea, from one reported pirate
haunte 20 another. and digging for
buried gold. When the mania once
gets hold OF a man II never seems 10
leave until Il has soured his temper
and ruined his life.
Barbados is a fayorite resort OF the
treasure-seekers. Several caches of
doubloons and pieees-ofeight have
been found there in digging among old
ruins. Captain Kidd once ran his
ship ashore at Barbados when chased
by a cruiser. He left a paper describ-
ing spot in a small wood neaa
Bridgetown, the island capital. where
he said he had buried an immense
treasure.
There is a firm belief throughout the
West Indies that there are many hid
den treasures Of the same character
in Hayti and ssnto Domingo. When
the negroes rose in insurrection
against the French and Spanish mas
ters the latter had TO fee TO the towns
or the woods for refuge.
In most cases they could not take
their valuables with them, and they
concealed them somewhere about
their chateaux. These fine old man
sions are now mere ruins. overgrown
by the rank luxurianee OF tropical
vegetation and Inhabited only by
goats and vultures. n man must go
treasure hunting. these are the places
he should select In preference 20
mythical pirate lairs vaguely indicated
by legend or by some ineonprehen.
sible chart drawn In blood on a riece
OF rag, after the fashion OF King Sol.
omon's Mines"
In the Bahamas they tell a queer
story OF a big haul recently made
There By a mysterious American He