Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-05-26
COCOS' TREASURE
STILL UNBOUND
"MAN WHO KNOWS WHERE GOLD
iNGOTs LIE" RETURNS
EMPTY HANDED.
CAPTAIN BROWN NOT READY
HOWEVER TO GIVE UP QUEST
MET HARD LUCK.

tain James Brown says he is the only
man who knows just where the $780,
100000 Cocos island hidden treasure
is. Captain James Brown has just
returned from a vain hunt for it. The
treasure is still hidden.
Captain Brown left San Francisco
on Feb. 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 reef
French ship rescued them Cap
tain Brown comes from Providence,
R. l. He says that in 1850 when he
was first mate of the schooner Sea
Foam, he learned the Cocos island Sc
cret from his captain, Henry Smith.
The treasure had been discovered
and transferred to another island near
Australia for safety, Captain Smith
told him. 1t was expected that the
Sea Foam would bring it back, but,
says Captain Brown, everybody on
board died through one mishap or an
other before the musty millions could
be found. Brown says he is going
after the treasure again.
Like as not the international Or
der of Buried Treasure Seekers" will
expel Captain Brown at its next meet
ing. Of all the men, dreamers and
hard-headed utilitarians who have
,,bbo5 fo, +ha q noO 0O0 ~ cold ond
silver Tin gold that lie buried in
Cocos island, this Rhode Island Yam
kee apparently is the first who has re-
turned with out even an Aztec drink
ing cup.
Accounting for Treasure.
Cocos island, known also as Treas
ure island, lies some 800 miles to the
westward of Costa RIGA, and about the
same distance north of the equator.
1t belongs to Costa RIGA. The pres
ence of the treasure is invariably ac-
counted for, but all good believers are
agreed that the bulk of it was carried
to the island by Bonita-the pirate
Don Pedro Bonita, who, after he got
tired of plundering the West Indies
early in the seventeenth century
turned his dredful eye on the west
coast of South America.
Then there is the Mar, Dier treas
ure. There was a rebellion in Peru
in 1885. Before surrendering to the
insurgents, the Spaniards gathered up
all the valuables in the churches, the
homes and the mint at Lima and re-
moved them to a bank at CallaO.
From Callao they were transferred to
the British merchant ship Mary der,
which lay in the harbor. At sight of
the gold and jewels and riches of the
sanctuary, so the story goes, Captain
Thomspon and his crew were them
selves seized with piratical zeal.
They murdered the Peruvian gentle
men in charge of the immense treas
ure and lit out for Cocos island, which
had been recommended by the mate
as a salubrious treasure resort.
straightway Landed.
Having landed and cached their
loot, they left the island and straight
away were captured by a Spanish
man-of-war that had been trailing
them. Seventeen were executed. Cap
tain Thompson and the mate were re-
prieved on condition that they should
disclose the hiding place of the treas
IRE. But once back at Cocos, the
prisoners walked their captors all
over the island and at length escaped.
Figuring that Captain Thompson and
the mate would die of hunger, the
Spaniards quit the island; but two
weeks later a whaler, touching at Co
cos for water, found the two sad-eyed
strangers on the beach who said they
had been shipwrecked and had fioated
ashore on spar They were taken to
the mainland The mate died of vel
low fever. 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 bequeathed
the secret to Captain Hackett. Hack
EFT in turn bequeathed it to Admiral
Pal,iser. commander of Great Britain's
Pacific squadron from 1896 to 1899.
Palliser believed the story, and be-
cause of his belief, no less than fifteen
expeditions sailed for Cocos. They
got many an ingot.
In 1905 Earl Fitz William, friend
of the admiral's, went to the island
and began blasting at the point where
from s30.O0O.o00 to S100,000000 was
supposed to lie. A blast shook down
a land slide and seven of the party
were injured. Lord FitZ William said
later that he had made the attempt
rather as a jolly lark than as seri-
Gus hunt for gold, but 1907 found him
fitting out another ship, the Attiquin.
The wreck of the Attiquin left his
lordship shy 100000. His recovery
from the buried-treasure fever was
very rapid.