The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-08-05
TREASURE IS
STILL IN THE GROUND
Only Man Who Knows Re-
turns Empty HandedTo
Make Another Search.

San Francisco-Captain James Brown
says he Is the only man who knows
just where the $50, 900 1000 Cocos island
hidden treasure is. Captain Brown has
returned from a vain hunt for 1t. The
~treasure is still hidden.
Captain Brown left San Francisco
February 2 and went to Sydney. There
he took a schooner and four men and
started to get the treasure. Two days
out the schooner struck a reef. "A
French ship rescued them.
Captain Brown comes from Provi-
dence, r.. !. He says that in 1850,
when he was first mate of the schooner
Sea Foam, he learned the Coeos island
secret from his captain, Henry Smith.
The treasure had been discovered and
transferred t%olanother island near Aus
tralia' for safety, Captain Smith told
him. 1t was expected hat the Sea
Foam would bring 1t back, but, says
Captain Brown, everybody on board
died through n mishap or another
before the musty millions could be
found. Brown says he is going after
the treasure again.
Like as not the international Order
OF Buried Treasure Seekers will expel
Captain Brown at'its next meeting. OF
all the men, dreamers and hard-headed
a~tilitarfans, who have grubbed for the
3 100000 of gold and silver that lie
buried in Cocos island. this Rhode
Island Yankee apparently is the first
who has returned with not eve an
Aztec drinking cup. 4
Accounting for Treasure.
Cocos island, known also as Treasure
island, lies some 300 miles to the west
ward of Costa RIGA, and about the
same distance north of the equator. 1t
belongs to Costa Rica. The presence
of the treasure is variably accounted
for, but all good believers are agreed
that the bulk of It was carried to the
island by Bonita-the pirate-Don Pc
dro Bonita, who, after he got tired of
plundering the West Indies early in the
seventeenth century, turned his dread
full eye on the west coast OF South
America.
Then there is the Mary Dior treas
ure. There was a rebellion in Peru in
1886. Before surrendering to the in
s%urgents, the Spaniards gathered up
all the valuables in the churches, tho
homes and the mint at Lima n re-
moved them to a bank at Callao. From
Callao they were transferred to the
British merchant ship Mary Diera
which lay in the harbor. At sight Of
the gold and Jewels and riches of the
sanctuary, SO the story goes, Captain
Thompson M his crew were them
selves seized with piratical zeal. They
murdered the Peruvians in charge Of
the immense treasure and lit u for
Cocos island. which had been recon-
mended by the mate as a salubrious
treasure resort.
Two Escape.
Having landed and cached their loot,
they left the island and straightway
were captured by a Spanish man Of
war that had been trailing them. Sew
enteen were executed. Captain Thomp-
son and the mate were reprieved on
condition that they should disclose the
hiding place of the treasure. But once
back at Cocos the prisoners walked
their captors all over the island and
at length escaped.
= Figuring that Captain Thompson
n the mate would die of hunger the
Spaniards quit the island; but two
weeks later a whaler touching at Cocos
for water, found two sad-eyed
strangers on the beach, who said they
had been shipwrecked and had floated
ashore on a spar. They were taken to
the mainland. The mate died of vel
low ever. The captain went to Can
ada, ~intrusted a map of Cocos island
to a man named Heating, and even
tually was frozen to death in a snow
storm.
When Heating died he b~equeathed
the secret 10 captain Hackett
in turn ~bequeathed II to Admiral Pal
User, commander of Great Britain's
Pacific squadron from 1896 to 1899.
Palliser believed the story and because
of his belief no less than Is expeditions
sailed for Cocos. They got many an
lngot.
In 1905 Earl Fitz William, a friend
of the admiral's, went to the island
and began blasting at the point where
from $50. 600, 900 to 500, 900, 900 was
supposed to lie. A blast shook down
q landslide and seven Of the party
were injured. Lord Fitz William said
later that he had made the attempt
vather as a jolly lark than as a serious
hunt for gold, but 1907 found him fit
ting out another ship. the Attiquin.
The wrecking of the Attiquin left his
Iordship shy $500, 900. His
from the buried treasure fever was
rapid.