Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-01-21
An Exciting Voyage.

uLtle salllnS yaWl, maHIeo ny
three men, put into New York harbor
the other day, after an adventurous
voyage of 1923 days from Liverpool,
during which time she had covered
over 1000 miles. The aim Of her
crew is to seek for a treasure buried
long ago by pirates on an island near
the coast of Honduras. Treasure hunts
are continually going on in the West
Indies and the Spanish Main, but the
hidden boards are not often brought
to light None the less (writes q
globe-trotting contributor 1 heard OF
a few cases during five years spent in
the CaribbeeS.
Emanuel Bodden, the skipper of q
Grand CayInan turtllng schooner, had
an extraordinary strike Of luck about
six years ago. He had brought his
little vessel alongside 4 bark which had
stranded ON coral reef near ia
n,aiea and been abandoned, and was
taking what he could find of value
from the wreck Looking over the
side, tie saw a yellow CLEAN en- @
shelving rock several feet beneath the
clear water.
Thinking it was q piece of copper
shcathing, he dived for it-and came up
with his hansd full Of gold coins. They
were Spanish doubloons and pieces-of-
eight OF the seventeenth century There
were hundred of them on the sunken
reer, as we'll as some pieces of wreck
age that apparently had belonged to an
ancient Spanish boat. All day long
the skipper and his men dived for the
coins. and they sold the lot to mer-
chant in Port Royal street. Kingston
Jamaica. for close on $500. I was
! there when the deal was made, and ex-
aniined several OF the coins. which
were in an excellent state Of preScrva-
! ton.
| How came they to be lost in this
strange manner" There are many
theories, but probably they were be
.ny carried loose in the boat when it
WIS capsizcd. There were no skeletons
| by tie boat. so it must be supposed the
crew were picked up.
When l was staying at Nassau, in
! 1901, a strange story was told by two
fishermen, who came to town from one
| Of the islands near by. They said that
IN American white man came ashore
| to their fishing hut from small yacht.
and engaged them to row him I"
! another island several miles Off. They
! rowod all neht. and i'll the morning
landed. He made them dig at spot
| he pointed out. after consulting an old
parchment. and he watched over them
| closely, with a Winchester rifle in his
hand. At last they unearthed q small,
| but very heavy. iron-bound chest, with
which they rowed away to the yacht.
AZ soon as it had been hoisted aboard
the vessel departed.
This story could hardly have been
invented by the fishermen. for the
American and his yacht had been at
Nassau only few days before. and he
! had made many inquiries about the
islands in the vicinity. What did he
find In the chest? Nobody in Nassau
doubts that it was Captain kidd's ia
nous hoard. said to have been hidden
| tEereabouts.
The abortive revolution in Hayti. led
by General Firlnin and Admiral Kill
lick, was largely financed by an old
! French treasure found by the latter in
a ruined chateau on the Island of Tor
tuga. 1t had been buried there in the
| days when the Haytian negroes massa-
cred their French masters. This find
was not lucky one for Killlck. He
persisted. after his cause was lost. in
the destruction of his cruiser Crete-a-
Pierrot as u pirate by the German gun
boat Panther.
| General Matos. who was the richest
merchant prince in Venezuela until he
lost much of his money in vain efforts
to overthrow President Castro. fitted
out an expedition in 1895 to the Isle of
Margheritu, off the Venezuelan coast.
| and found an old pirate treasure which
is said to have realized over $4,000.
Matos told me himself that his share
came to about E22,0oO, after paying
expenses and giving the Venezuelan
government a third-Exchange.