The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-11

that he could help; and of course, view
ing the situation from the natives
standpoint, what he did not spend he
must have saved.
He is said to have died peacefully in
| his bed, as all honest men should, after
| a life of crime, and possessed of all of
his wickedly gained wealth. In expla-
nation of his reluctance to spend money
/ or make an attempt to dispose of any
/ of his store of jewels, the story runs
! that one of his victims when diving
| cursed him with a most elaborate series
! of curses and prophesied that he would
never reap any satisfaction from wealth
! gained through murder and robbery
| And sure enough, Maxine never did.
but spent all of his life guarding and
boarding the gold he could take no sat
! isfaction in spending or in other ways
disposing of. Now what did he do
with it is the question.
Some say he buried it on the point.
Others that he took it over to Tampa
and secreted it on the mainland There
have been several attempts made to
hunt it up. but it has not been un-
earthed as yet.
One night not long ago a party of
colored men from Tampa landed on
Maxine Point, for the purpose of be-
ginning a search for the treasure. One
of the men pretended to have in his
possession a chart showing where the
gold was buried. He had bought it,
he said, from Spanish cigarmaker in
Tampa, who pretended to have had it
from his father, who in turn got it
from his father, who sailed with Maxi
mo.
MI
dig. 1t was as dark as pitch. The moon
had not yet risen. Just at the most
interesting moment. when they heard
the shovel strike what must have been
the lid of great oaken chest, there
arose an internal uproar at sea.
They heard sounds as if a number of
men were being shot and then thrown
overheard from a boat. They heard the
pistol shots, shrieks of horror, curses,
and great splashes when the bodies Of
the dead pirates struck the water.
One of the stories which accompany
this buried treasure. has it that one
night when Maxine came on shore
with a chest of gold, he brought from
the ship some of mis- crew who, it hap
pened, had recently been mutinous. He
also had with him his second in COM
mand, as bloodthirsty wretch, they
say, as himself.
When they were through with secret
ing the treasure. these two men shot
the sailors, while they were in the boat,
and then threw their bodies overheard
to become the prey of the innumerable
sharks which infect these waters, or
to be carried by the tide to some one
of the sandy islets skirting the shore.
The treasure seekers had heard, it
appeared, this story of Maxine, and
dropping their shovels. they fed away
up the peninsula as if the devil was
after them. They never stopped until
they reached St Petersburg, in the
small hours of the morning half dead
with fright, but thankful that they had
been able to get safely away and out
of the clutches of the murderous Maxi
mo and his b1oodthirsty lieutenant
There is not enough money in the
Tampa banks to coax those colored in
dividuals back to Maxine. They would
not visit the place in daylight, and as
for going there again in the night-not
much! They had got safely away that
time, barely by the skin of their teeth
and they do not propose CHANGING it a
second time.
Down on the southern coast of Flo
rida. in Monroe county, are what are
known as ten thousand Islands, and
a little further to the south another +
group in the great Ponce de Leon Bay. |
Nearly all of this part of the state is
made up of everglades, or swamps.
brackish or salt water lakes, and is
lands. To attempt an exploration of |
this region, one would need a ships |
outfit for getting at the latitude and
longitude, and a compass and provis- /
ions for several months, in case of be-
ing lost.
There is a story of this region that
one afternoon a hunter and fisherman