The Grit-advocate., 1906-06-22

At last accounts this vast treasure
trove had not been unearthed.
Familiar to every newspaper read
CT recent years is the story of the
famous Cocos island treasure. Dur
ing the last 20 years no fewer than
Is expeditions have set out to recover
this pile of gold and jewels Indeed.
more than once parties have engaged
in deadly conflict Search is in prog
ress there at the present time.
Cocos island is a patch of land 16
square miles in extent, rising from
the Pacific ocean off the coast of Costa
Rica, to which country 1t belongs.
Two treasure plants" are supposed to
be located there. one of S6O,0OOOOO and
the other of $15, 900. 900.
The first is called the Bonita treas
ure. after the notorious pirate of that
name. For many years Bonita few
the black flag and cross bones in the
Caribbean sea and accumulated great
stores of plunder. Driven from those
waters finally. he crossed the Isthmus
of Panama and began operations on
the Pacific
Wealth Buried by Bonita.
In 1921. after the surrender of
Donaja to the Liberator Iturbide, vast
stores of government wealth were re-
moved from the City of Mexico.
Bonita, it Is stated, managed to cap
ture the treasure and hurried with
his spoil to Cocos island where he
buried it.
The other plant" called the Mary
Dier treasure. was committed to the
keeping Of Cocos island by the crew
of the ship of that name which hap.
pened to be in the harbor of Cal
lao. Peru, during war upheaval.
All the treasures and plate of the
cathedral and of the churches of Lima
and the surrounding country were
hurried to the Scotch ship Mary Dier.
In addition many wealthy citizens
placed their choicest possessions on
the vessel In all it is stated that
the ships unexpected cargo amount
ed in value to over $15,OOO,OOO.
This proved too much, tradition
states, for the officers and crew. The
guardians of the wealth were over
powered and the treasure was land
ed and buried on Cocos island until
and used.
Some time later the vessel and most
of the crew were lost. The captain,
named Thompson, made his way to
Canada and died there. He COM
municated his secret to one Heating,
who made several trips to the island
and succeeded in recovering about
$4,000 in golden doubloons.
Since then numerous exploring ex-
peditions have visited the island.
Only last year two of these came into
conflict and savage fight ensued.
There have been other fights over the
treasure.
Many Parties Hunt Treasure.
At present the island is guarded by
Capt Matthews, its governor and part
owner He is directing the search.
Harold Gray, Of Ireland, claims the
concession to hunt the treasure, but
the claim is combated by others. An
armed expedition under Lord Fitz-
williams of England had brush with
the Gray forces last year and the
Costa Rican government was COM
PEELED to send gunboat to restore
order. AS far as known the Cocos
island treasure remains undiscovered.
Most treasure hunts are being con.
Quoted by companies which provide
capital as speculation. Now and
then, however, the story comes to
light OF some gold-daZzled individual
who sinks all his possessions in chas.
ing the golden will-o -the-wisp.
One such man-William s. Meade
died recently, penniless and alone in
New York. Early in life he made
fortune through an invention, but
spent it all chasing the ignis fatuus
of hidden treasure.
Meade asserted he had fallen heir
to maps and directions that would
lead to buried wealth that would run
up into the millions. He purchased a
large and expensive steam yacht,
manned it with large crew and ma
chinery for raising sunken galleons
supposed to be full Of Spanish gold
and soon after the civil war set sail
for the south seas.
Disaster, wreck and priyation fell
to the lot OF the first cruise and
Meade and his companions were
forced to return without a single find.
More money was sunk in fitting out
another expedition, but this, too, was
failure that ended in u shipwreck.
All OF.
She-Did Won see nanap