The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-11-10

command of the
vessel, claims to be the only man in
all the world who knows the secret of
the buried treasure of Cocos island.
He plans on this expedition to lift the
vast wealth plundered by sea rovers
in the early part of the last century
and hidden on the island in a cave,
the exact location Of which has been
lost and for which adventures have
sought in vain for many years.
He is equipped with hydraulic min
Ing machinery and has sufficient pro-
visions to remain for year If nee
essary on the island, which lies 800
miles off the western coast of Central
America. That a score of former ex-
petitions have proved failures does
not discourage him. The treasure
hunters who have gone before have
depended upon pick and shovel. He
will be the first prepared to use
hydraulic mining methods. Earth
quakes. he says, have shaken down
landslides upon the treasure cave and
changed the topography Of the island.
He will wash the earth away with
streams of water powerful enough to
uprOOt trees and burst rocks asunder.
He is confident of success.
when I return to the United
States" says Captain Hackett, Il shall
have the entire Cocos island treasure
battened down beneath the matches OF
the Hesperus."
The story of Cocos island makes
Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure
Island" seem true in comparison, so
much stranger are the facts of this
real romance of buried treasure than
the dream-adventures, highly colored
as they are, wrought by the magma
ton Of the novelist. The marvellous
tale has its beginning in the days
when savage buccaneers. flying skull
and-crossbones at their mast-heads,
married the Spanish main and plum
dered tall galleons on the high seas.
1t fairly glitters from beginning to
end with a fairy wealth of doubloons,
pleces-of- eight. louis doris, moidores,
sequins and double guineas In it's
crowded episodes, blindfolded victims
walk the plank, bronzed and turbaned
swarm over the bulwarks
of captured ships and lay about them
with cutlass and dragoon pistol, sea
rogues are strung up at yard-arms.
towns are sacked and looted, vessels
are left to weller to their ruin in flame
and smoke. 1t centers about lonely
island. palm-shadowed in tropic seas.
whereon lies buried treasure beyond
the dreams of Monte Cristo. 1t rings
with the clash Of battle on the island
beaches and with the death cries of the
men murdered that they might never
betray the treasures secret hiding
place. Finally 1t hands down from the
far-off time Of romance to prosaic
modern days great golden mystery
which, like siren reckoning through
the years from purple southern seas.
has lured men to ruin and death.
According to ellauthenticated ac-
counts. $23.000000 in pirate treasure
Is buried on Cocos island OF this sum
$12,000,000 in money, bullion and
plate is supposed to have been hidden
in 1921 by Benito Bonito. the last Of
the great pirates who, even after La
fltte had passed away. kept alive upon
the ocean the lawless traditions OF
L'Ollonois Pierre LIE Grand. Roche
Braziliano. England, Hawkins and Sir
Henry Morgan.
The remaining $11,0o0,000 is said
10 have been concealed in the same
cave In 1888 by Bugs" Thompson,
one of Bonito's old pirate crew. who
sailed away with the treasure from
the harbor of Callao when the gov
eminent authorities Of Peru entrusted
It aboard his vessel to save it from
capture by revolutionists. 1t consisted
of money from the public treasury. in
gots Of gold from Inca mines, plate,
chalices. ornaments and golden stat
ues belonging to the churches and ca
thedrals of Lima.
Captain Hackett is fourth in what
may be christened the royal line Of
the holders Of the golden secret OF
Cocos island. This secret has been
scent from Thompson. The former
ocean freebooter for years carried
about chart of Cocos island drawn
upon a piece Of yellow parchment
showing the exact location of the cave
in which his own and Bonito's treas.
ure hoard is hidden. He gave this
chart to a fisherman Of st. Johns,