Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-16
QUEST OF PIRATE GOLD
THE EPIDEMIC OF TREASURE
TITS" MONEY EXPEDITIONS.
From the London Express.

From the London Express
This week the steamer Xema leaves Car
diff for mysterious island on the west
African coast on a romantic diamond-seek-
ing expedition. The circumstance reminds
one that during the last few years there
have been constantly recurring of breaks
of 'treasuretis"-indeed. the epidemic is
at this moment more virulent than ever.
The hidden treasures Of gold and silver.
Of jewelry. diamonds and precious stones.
for which periodical search is made In va
rious parts of the world are computed to
be worth several hundred million pounds
sterling. A bare statement OF these various
Eldorados Is calculated to make the eyes
Of the avaricious blink.
At the bottom OF the Lake of Guatavita,
in Colombia. there lies. 1t is said. treasure
in gold. silver and jewels to the value of at
least f100. OOO.oO Pirates loot worth many
millions is buried Cocos Island in the
Pacific. Spanish gold to the tune of $4,000
600 reposes In the Armada galleon Admiral
of Florence which was sunk in Tobermory
bay, of the Island of Null. Spanish ves-
sells are lying at the bottom of Vigo bay
laden with f2s.0oO.0o0 In gold, silver and
precious stones.
Six million pounds worth of the buried
treasure of the Incas" has yet to be I'M
earthed in Bolivia. Untold wealth lies In
the bed Of Father Tiber, into whose bosom
the Romans cast their priceless possessions
The ancient regalia of England, many Nor
man Jewels. the crown OF King Alfred and
other valuables are buried in the Wash.
Pirate Hoards
Pirate boards estimated at ESQ 600 600 are
hidden in the Black river mountain, Maui
ritius. OF the coast OF st. Johns. Cape
Colony. lies the wrecked East Indiaman,
Grosvenor. bullying with s1.OOoOo0 in specie.
A British man-of-war, the Black Prince.
sunk by Russian gun fire at Sebastopol. has
cargo Of over 100000 in gold and valu-
ables.
Jewels and gold worth a million pounds
are tantalizingIy hidden on the Mediter-
ranean Island of Alboran Stores of gold
and precious stones are believed to exist
in certain cases of the Libyan desert. The
ill-gotten hoard of Capt. Melville, a ia
nous bushranger, who robbed hundreds of
gold diggers between Melbourne and Bal
iarat. lies carefully concealed In the Aus
| tralian bush.
I Numerous expeditions have been. and
are still being, dispatched in search of
| these hidden millions About a score have
been fitted out for Cocos Island alone But
success is long In coming. 1t was reported
two years ago that a party of British and
American engineers had recovered f3,-
100000 of the Incas' 1ong-lost gold but sur
prisingiy little has since been heard of the
yarn.
Wealth Of the Incas.
The probability is that the shades of the
Incas are still successfully guarding their
own. The people over whom the Incas
| ruled were wonderful medieval race OF
white complexioned Indians, whose amazing
wealth-their palaces blazed with gold and
precious stones-was hidden In caves. sunk
In river beds and buried deep in the earth.
Romantic almost beyond belief is the
ia TSl nd for
which unceasing search is being made. One
portion of the hoard was deposited about
1921 by British pirate vessel 1t hid
den by sinking in gravel and tunneing in
rock The pirate leaders suffered capital
punishment. and all evidence of the where
abouts of the spoil vanished Another por-
Peruvian town entrusted to a British bark
during a revolution. The crew of the bark
betrayed their trust. escaped with the valu-
ables and buried them on Cocos Island.
The pirate treasure consisted of bullion
to the extent Of hundreds of thousands of
pounds: precious stones to an enormous
| amount: hundreds of bars of pure gold; 213
gold-hilted swords studded with precious
, stones; chests filled with gold coins. The
Peruvian treasure consisted of gold and
silver sacramental vessels. ornaments richly
silver ingots. chests Of bullion from the
state treasury.
Many Search Parties.
A chart of the island locating the latter
hoard has been handed down-a chart for
all the world like the one which forms such
an appetizing frontispiece to Stevenson's
great romance. Relying on this and other
documentary evidence, at least eighteen
search parties have been engaged during
the past seventy years In digging and
blasting about the island, sometimes with
bloodshed and the throwing overheard of
rival searchers.
II
the treasure ship of the 'rInvincible Ar
mada," which is now proceeding OF the
Isle of Null. 1t Is conclusively proved,
from the archives of Inveraray Castle. that
the ship, with its millions of bullion, really
sank at the spot Indicated indeed, relics
of value have already been salved from her
hulk. An idea of the wealth she carried
may be gathered from the fact that her
admiral. sybarite Of renown. never ate
golden goblets. and that when she was
wrecked she bore many Catholic priests.
with all their holy treasures. silver cruci-
fixes and sacramento vessels.
1t Is equally certain that the Spanish gall
Icons. which were scuttled in Vigo bay In
1702 to avoid capture by the British, are
gold. silver and precious stones. the har-
vest OF four years footing in Mexico. Fear
full and wonderful salvage apparatus has
been invented and tried by explorers
sisted by the Spanish government. but so
far without avail. Similarly fruitless have
been the attempts to locate the wreck Of
the Black Prince
But the greatest treasure In history Is that
which q city syndicate is now seeking In
the volcano lake OF Guatavita, Colombia.
This sacred lake of the Chibichas was the
homo OF the Chibichas' deity. the sacred
man, and into 1t. with the object of pro-
pitiating the deity, thousands of pilgrims
cast every imaginable kind of treasure. The
facts are authentic, and any day the city
GvndiCaf n
E1O0. 900. 900.
The Romans. after the manner of the Chi
bichas, cast their valuables to the god
which they believed to live beneath the
Tiber's waters. and these the river still
cherishss.